


gold rush

by OdotumSuojelius



Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: (i mean is kinda the same right?), (note: maxiel as side ship), Alternate Universe - Boarding School, Alternate Universe - High School, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, Idiots in Love, M/M, that tag is literally for all the ships in this, they all just idiots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:09:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 51,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28175940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OdotumSuojelius/pseuds/OdotumSuojelius
Summary: boarding school!au: What is fancy expensive boarding school if not drama, friendships, romances, fights, tricking the staff  and caring for each other?Lando is a new student who falls for his roommate. Max has a mission and is called the substitute teacher Daniel. Pierre is done with always being the one that needs help. Charles is dealing with grief. George is dealing with the pressure of his older brother’s achievements. Alex is trying to prove that he is good enough to be in the school.
Relationships: Alexander Albon/George Russell, Daniel Ricciardo/Max Verstappen, Lando Norris/Max Verstappen, Pierre Gasly/Charles Leclerc
Comments: 102
Kudos: 180





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimers regarding the whole fic:
> 
> 1) This fic is work of fiction that has been written as a coping mechanism during these dark times. I do not imply any of the drivers in this fic are actually together. Please do not share this with anyone in this fic
> 
> 2) English is not my first language and this is not beta-read. There will be mistakes. I tried writing this chapter in presence tense but I think it doesn't feel good. So I am changing to use past tense in the coming chapters 
> 
> 3) Maxiel is very much a side ship but is tagged because they have scenes together. Rest of the ships are actually the thing here!
> 
> 4) song title from Taylor Swift - gold rush (stream evermore is amazing)
> 
> I think that is all! It's quite a long first chapter because we need to get to know everyone a bit more! I hope you enjoy this!

To say Lando is nervous, is an understatement. He feels like he wants to puke and his hands are sweaty and shaky. He really regrets that he just didn’t let his mom and dad bring him to the school. He thought that it would be too embarrassing but right now he would have much rather embarrass himself by getting hugs from his teary parents than possible puking in front of everyone. At least then he would have got hugs. 

He knows this is the right decision. After all the shit he had gone through at his old school, he couldn’t bare another year at that hell hole. He went through enough teasing, bullying and even beating for a lifetime. He wants a new start. He needs a new start. He wants to finish his school in peace and go to the best university there will be. Milton Keynes Academy will be the place for that. 

If he wasn’t so nervous about everything, he would feel actually a bit excited. His long time friend George has already gone to the school for a year and he has only said good things about everything. Sure George is a huge nerd who would of course love all the school stuff but all the other stuff did sound fun too. I will be okay, Lando thinks to himself. It will be great. It will be a fresh start. 

Suddenly the car parks outside the big school and Lando takes a deep breathe. He says quick thanks to the driver and gets out of the car grabbing his backpack with him. All of his other stuff should be already in his dorm room. Lando takes a moment to just look around him. The place looks even more like is from a story than in the pictures in the leaflets. 

In front of him is a huge stone building with hedges going around it. It looks like a modern version of Hogwarts. The school is located pretty much middle of nowhere but everywhere around him is beautiful. The yard is huge with a lot of green. There is a small pond close by and a lot of benches. Lando knows there is football field somewhere behind the school building. Yeah he can make this place his new home. 

“Mr Norris?” Lando turns around finding an older man looking at him with a soft smile. “Welcome to Milton Keynes.”

The headmaster Horner takes him to his office to sign the official papers and go through the most important rules and restrictions (no leaving school grounds without permission, no illegal substances, you need to keep your grades high etc.). Lando knows the head master definitely doesn’t do this to everyone. Normally people go through all the three years of upper middle school in the school but Lando is going straight to the second year. He knows his is extremely rare but well his parents money definitely helped to get him the school spot year late. 

To be honest most of the stuff Horner says goes by Lando. He tries his best to focus on everything but he is still way too nervous to function like a normal person would. He lets out a breath of relief when finally Horner offers to show him to his dorm. Lando declines it politely just wanting to throw his bag there and get to George as fast as possible. 

Lando leaves the office with a lot of papers that he promises to go through later during the day (he knows he won’t). The school might be huge but he finds the dorm floor of his age group quite easily. There is a big hallway of dorm doors and at the end of it there seems to be a bigger common room with sofas, tables and a big tv. He will check it all later. Now he just wants to see his friend and be able to calm down. 

He reads the names on every door till he finds the one with his own. On top of his name reads Max and he knocks on the door carefully in case his roommate - apparently Max - would be there. When he opens the door he finds the room to be empty and Lando lets out a sigh of relief. A moment of peace. 

Lando walks fully in the room looking around. There is a bed and a desk to each side of the room. A bathroom is attached to the room. There is some closet space and a small mini fridge. Lando is surprised how big the room feels. Sure now most of the space had been taken by Lando’s moving boxes. Lando throws his bag on the bed that is on the more empty side of the room and just sits down for a moment. 

There is a big poster world map and flag poster above Max’s bed as well as PSV banner. There is stuff on his desk as well but Lando doesn’t want to snoop more. There is a bag thrown on the chair which makes Lando think that Max must be already somewhere in the school. I will meet him later then, Lando sighs before standing up starting to look for George. He really hopes George is already at the school. 

Sharing a room with someone would definitely be weird but Lando tries not to overthink it. The guy couldn’t be that bad right? At least the school is big and you aren’t forced to spend time in your room. Lando walks down the hallway before finally reading “George, Nicholas” on one half open door. 

“Oh thank god you are here”, Lando smiles brightly as he opens the door to the room. 

George lifts his gaze from the suitcase to look at who was speaking. First thing he does when he realises it is Lando, is give him a big smile and pull the shorter boy to a hug. They had gone to same school prior to upper secondary school when George had followed in his older brother Lewis’ footsteps to Milton Keynes. 

“Is so cool that you are here”, George smiles to Lando as he lets go off him. He goes back to getting his clothes to the closet while Lando jumps to sit on his bed. “How you feeling?”

Nervous. A bit ill. Weird. 

“Great”, Lando smiles while looking around the room. There is lot more stuff around the room than in his one but then again Nicholas and George had both lived in the room for a year. “Maybe a bit weird to be away from home but oh well.”

“Yeah that is the feeling for a couple of first days but you will love it here”, George smiles to Lando softly. The boy really likes the school. He has a great roommate and other friends. He gets to play on the football team. He really doesn’t want to complain about being in the school. “And you will always have me here for you. You met your roommate already? Who is it?” 

“Max but I didn’t see him yet”, Lando says simply but the look George gives him makes his smile fall a bit. “What? Is it bad?”

“No Max is fine”, George hums finally getting all of his clothes to the closet. “I mean… he has his not good moments but mostly he is a very fine guy. I am sure you guys will get along well. I guess Horner just decided to separate him and Pierre then… but yeah don’t worry about it.”

That definitely doesn’t make him worry less. What about if his new roommate was a psychopath? What about if he would bully him? That would just be his luck. The worry must come through to his face because George sits next to Lando nudging him a bit. 

“Stop overthinking he is a great guy!” George gave Lando a soft smile. “Everything will be fine, okay? And you will always have me.”

“Thanks”, Lando gives George a grateful smile trying to calm his mind and changing the topic. “So how was the trip to Spain with your family?”

“Ugh don’t even start with it”, George sighs a little, running his hand through his hair. “Lewis got the info that he had got into Oxford to read law that week and that was all the trip was about then… I am so glad he is not here anymore.”

“See this school year is a new beginning for both of us”, Lando smiles to George pushing him a bit. “You are without Lewis’ shadow and I am without idiots from last school. Is gonna be great!”

George nods a little and smiles to Lando softly. Away from his brother’s shadow is exactly what he needs. George loves his brother. He really does. And if Lewis wasn’t his brother he would definitely be worshiping him like everyone else was but being his brother is just… overwhelming. His brother is amazing at everything he does. Sports? Absolute athlete. School things? Best grades possible. Social life? The social butterfly. 

“Geeooorge have you already re- oh!” before George is able to say anything to Lando another boy runs to the room with a math book in hand. He froze to look at George and Lando bit confused. “Sorry!”

“Oh my god Alex you can’t already be reading our school books!” George groans to his friend but isn’t able to hide his smile. “School starts tomorrow! You are not reading the books already!”

“I know but I just opened it accidentally and look at this!” Alex walks over to the bed showing his friend a spread from the math book pointing at some formula. “How are we suppose to use this?”

“We figure it out when we get to it Alex”, George says as he grabs the book away from his friend hiding it behind his back. He suddenly remembers Lando sitting next to him just looking at the two boys confused. “Oh Alex this is Lando he is from same primary school.He is in our class now. Lando this is Alex.”

“Oh hey Lando”, Alex smiles to Lando as he squeezes to also sit on the bed next to George. “Yeah I am Alex. George’s study buddy.”

“Oh don’t you worry I have heard a lot about you”, Lando smirks a little looking between Alex and George. 

The colour leaves George’s face right away and he looks at Lando. Lando just smirks. George really had told lot of good stuff about boarding school but even more Lando had heard stories about Alex. It is very clear that George was smitten. 

“Oh you never guess who Lando rooms with Alex”, George says quickly to pass the moment and get Alex’s confused look off his face. “Max!” 

“Wait really?” Alex asks almost excited while and Lando gets just more confused. “Okay Lando promise to never give him any answers to homework okay? I am sure he stole answers from Pierre last year. There is no way he could have always had everything right in classes!”

“Alex you are scaring Lando with your excitement”, George chuckles a little to his friend. 

“You know I am right!” Alex defends himself. “Is so unfair like I do my absolute everything in every class and fight with homework to be able to stay here and he does lot worse than me but Horner loves him so he gets to always be here.”

Milton Keynes demands for their student to keep a quite high grade average. It is the best boy boarding schools in whole UK and they wanted to keep that title. If you don’t perform well enough you get the boot. At least in most cases. Parents’ money or relations might help to keep your spot for a bit longer. 

The problem is that Alex doesn’t have those things packing him up if he fails. This is his chance to get to the best university and he doesn’t want to disappoint his parents. He tries so hard and the grades still aren’t the ones he truly needs. And then there are people like Max who don’t even care and get to stay there.

“Alex just has some resentment towards Max”, George tells Lando with a soft smile. Alex groans at that but doesn’t say anything else. “But honestly you guys will get along great!”

Lando really hopes George is right. 

#

“I can’t believe Christian actually fucking seperated us!” Max groans to Pierre while sipping on his red bull. “Now I have to share a room with some new kid. I hate this.”

They are hanging in the backyard of the school. They had both just thrown their stuff quickly to their room and come outside to enjoy the last warm summer days and the sunlight. The pair of best friends hadn’t seen each other for the last two weeks of summer holiday and that had possibly been the longest they had been without each other for years. 

It has always been Max and Pierre together since they were kids. Their families had always been friends but their unbreakable friendship started in the first grade when some boys had bullied Pierre. Max had come to the rescue scaring the bullies away and their dynamic was still there. Max protects Pierre from everything and Pierre tries to keep his best friend away from too much trouble. When Max’s father had decided to send Max to boarding school, Pierre had decided to follow his best friend right away. He knew Max needed him there and dear god Pierre needed him. 

“Well he did tell you that if you didn’t do well enough in the finals this would happen”, Pierre notes to his best friend while just closing his eyes. “Just be glad he didn’t tell your father how your year actually went.”

“Nah he is too scared of my dad”, Max hums while laying down on the grass. Who wouldn’t be scared of him, Max thinks. “Or he is scared of him for me… don’t know. Still sucks.”

Max knows at this point he is just whining and he really should be more grateful. All the places his father could have sent him after the incident Milton Keynes was definitely the best one. He knows Horner knows his father well enough and possible as protection lets Max get away with more than he should. Max is taking full advantage of that. 

“At least he isn’t suicidal and didn’t make you and Charles roommates”, Pierre says with a soft chuckle. “Though that would have been kind of fun.”

“Fun for who exactly?” Max glares at Pierre a little before sighing. “Well he is your problem now.”

Problem is a bit of a strong word, Pierre thinks but only hums to Max. He knows this conversation is not worth having. Charles’ and Max’s childish fights about their spots in the football team and their habit of annoying each other on purpose had been discussed enough many times. Personally Pierre thinks Charles seems like a great guy and he even feels a bit excited about the roommate change. 

Pierre loves Max with all his heart. His best friend is very important to him but he also knew maybe it was time to let go off him. Max is dominant and Pierre has always relied on that. He just knows it is maybe time to start to see what he is without Max. This roommate switch might just be the opportunity to that. 

“You know what is actually exciting about this year?” Max says suddenly with a smirk and Pierre already knows what he is going to say. “I heard Daniel is continuing as our biology teacher and well I am legal age now so that is gonna happen.”

“No Max I don’t want to hear about this”, Pierre groans knowing that Max doesn’t care. “You are not gonna fuck our subtitute teacher. If you do that Horner will be officially done with you!” 

“Well Horner is not gonna find out about this!” Max says with an excited smile. “Come on it was obvious that he was into me and at least now I am 17 so no laws broken. I promise you is gonna happen!”

Daniel Ricciardo had come to be biology substitute teacher late to the april and Max had fallen for him right away. Okay fallen was maybe a bit of a strong word. Max was just really bored, Daniel looked very good and it was a good challenge. When Max had got a bit of affection shown back to him that is when Max had fallen a bit. 

“I rather if you promised that it won’t happen”, Pierre groans at Max rolling his eyes. He stands up from the ground. “I am going to go unpack my moving boxes. Don’t do anything stupid!” 

“Never”, Max smirks while finishing his red bull. 

#

“Charles, Pierre” 

Charles stares at the names on the door before sighing and walking in. He is glad the room is empty as he walks in dragging his suitcase with him. He lifts the case on the bed but instead of starting to unpack it he just lets himself fall on the bed. He looks at what used to be Marcus’ side of the room and sighs. He is going to miss his friend a lot. They got along well and while he is fairly sure he and Pierre will also get along well as roommates he really craves the stability of Marcus being there. 

The summer had been weird. Being back home had been weird. Year ago when Charles had come to the boarding school he had just lost his father. Year before he had lost his godfather. His plan had been to come to Milton Keynes and distract himself from all the sadness and grief. That had worked perfectly actually. 

Now though getting to the same mindset seems impossible. Being back in Monaco had been a wet cloth straight to his face. Maybe when the actual classes would start again everything would be okay. Maybe. 

“You okay Charles?” Charles opens his eyes when he hears Pierre’s voice. He hadn’t heard the other boy come to the room at all. “You look a bit pale.”

“Yeah!” Charles smiles at Pierre right away not wanting to worry him. He sits up again on the bed running his hand through his hair. Pierre is still looking at him worried. “So you are my new roommate.”

“Yeah”, Pierre gives Charles a smile as he walks to one of his boxes starting to open it. He gazes to the boy on the bed. “I hope is okay with you.”

“Yeah of course”, Charles smiles at Pierre just leaning against the wall. He will unpack soon. “I am more concerned that you don’t want to room with me.”

“Because of Max?” Pierre asks casually and Charles gives a little nod. “Nah I am happy to room with you. At least I get some time away from his grumpy butt.” 

Charles chuckles at that and Pierre gives him a big smile. Charles does think that Pierre is a sweet guy. Yeah he and Max have some beef and play fighting but Pierre seems to always radiate this sweet and calming sunshine around him. Maybe having Pierre around really wouldn’t be the worst thing to have. 

“So how was your summer?” Charles smiles at Pierre after a moment of silence. “Any cool stories?” 

“I got sunburned and stung by jellyfish”, Pierre shrugs with a smile as he puts his clothes in the closet. “You think those are cool stories?”

“Well… I was expecting something like “I robbed a bank” or “I almost drowned” but sure those are good ones too”, Charles smirks right away. 

Pierre starts to laugh at that and Charles feels like he can smile a true smile for the first time in ages. Yeah maybe it would be okay that Pierre is his roommate. 

#

Lando hung with George and Alex for a couple of hours before finally going back to his room. The anxiety has slowly been disappearing and he is starting to feel more hopeful about the coming year. It is clear that George and Alex has their own insider things but it is also clear that they both wanted to make him feel welcomed. He is very grateful for that. Now there is only one person to meet and he could finally calm down fully. 

Max shows up to the room in the evening. Lando has managed to unpack all of his stuff to the closets and desk. He has been tempted to start to go through the other boy’s stuff when he finished but instead he got his Nintendo Switch from his bag and got Mario Kart on. Of course that is when, who he assumes is, Max comes in. 

“Oh”, the boy looks at Lando a bit taken back before giving him a smile. “So you are Lando? How old are you?”

Lando is bit taken back by Max’s blunt question every possible flashback of his bullies coming to his mind. But then Max is smiling at him and Lando thinks that smile is actually cute. Lando knows he looks like a kid and he wants to give this guy the benefit of the doubt. 

“I… I’m 17”, Lando says trying to sound as sure as he can. “And yeah I am Lando.”

“Okay you just look kind young sorry”, Max hums with a small smile walking over to the mini fridge grabbing a red bull from there. He leans against his desk as he opens it. “I’m Max. What you doing?”

“Yeah figured”, Lando says cheeks a little blushed as he focuses his gaze on the game. “Playing Mario Kart.”

“Can I play too?” Lando looks at Max surprised but nods right away. He gives Max the second controller as Max sits next to him on the bed. “Thanks.”

Max gives Lando a bigger smile as he settles to sit next to him. Oh fuck, Lando thinks as he feels his cheeks blush. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading this first chapter! Feel free to leave comment and/or kudos! I have second chapter almost ready so I will be posting that before Christmas :)
> 
> My tumblr : [maxynorris](https://maxynorris.tumblr.com/)


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First week of school feat stressed George, comforting Alex, worried Pierre, mopey Charles, flirty Max and homesick Lando

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The support and love towards the first chapter made me so happy! I was so surprised and I really hope you guys will like where this story will go :)
> 
> Disclaimer: I changed my writing back to writing in past tense from this chapter on. That is more familiar to me! Also this chapter is almost as long as the first one so looks like this fic has monster chapters

“I swear to god if one more person asks me about how Lewis is doing I am going to lose it!” George groaned as he fell down to his bed. “Everyone is like “Oh George how is Lewis doing? What school did he get to? Is he liking it?” I will punch someone soon!”

It was end of the third school day and George had had enough. Alex chuckled a little following the other boy to his room sitting to the foot of the bed starting to take his books out of the bag. George just pressed his face to his pillow groaning to it. 

“Come on Georgie”, Alex chuckled softly moving bit closer. He placed his hand on George’s back slowly moving it up and down to calm his friend. “It's just the start of the semester so they want to hear about him. Everyone will forget about Lewis soon.”

“Ugh stop making sense I wanna be angry!” George moved his head enough to say those words before pressing face back to the pillow. 

It wasn’t like George had actually thought all the teachers would have forgotten about Lewis but every time he went to a new class teachers stopped him to ask about Lewis. George answered the same stuff every time with a polite smile “oh he got to Oxford and he is so excited. Oh yes he does deserve it doesn’t he? Yeah he's great.” 

“You know I would just like to be known as George”, George sighed moving to lay on his back. He sifted closer to the wall giving Alex some room on the bed. “Not as Lewis’ baby brother.”

“Our teachers are idiots”, Alex gave George a sympathetic smile while carefully moving to lay next to George their arms touching each other. “You might still be Lewis’ brother but they will forget about him soon and just imagine when we graduate and go to university. No one will know anything about Lewis then.” 

George smiled a little and turned his head to look at Alex who was just staring at the ceiling. For a moment he focused on just looking at the silhouette of Alex’s face. His gaze moved from lashes to nose to lips. They were used to being close to each other finding comfort in simply lying on the bed together. 

Boarding school meant no affection from anyone other than the people you go there if you are okay with that. It was quite common to see friends hanging out together almost in each other’s laps or arms around each other even when only few of the boys were openly gay. It was a norm in the school. George wouldn’t still share his bed with anyone else than Alex. 

“You are right”, George hummed and moved his gaze to the ceiling too. “Thanks Alex.”

“You are welcome”, Alex smiled letting his finger touch George’s hand for a moment. There was bit of silence before Alex sat up on the bed. “Alright now that it is officially already the third school day we can start doing our homework come on!”

“Ugh”, George groaned but sat up as well reaching for his bag. “You are such a nerd… what we gonna start with?” 

“French!” Alex said right away, opening the book moving to sit against the wall. “I hate this stupid language so much!”

“Me too”, George sighed a little, moving to sit next to Alex. “Ca va?”

“Ca va bien”, Alex laughed a little. “And that is all I know so lot of studying to do!”

“We will be fine Alex”, George assured his friend. “We will go through everything till you can’t speak anything but French.”

We will be fine, Alex thought cheeks a bit blushed. He gave George a soft smile and nodded. We are a good team, Alex thought and for a moment he was sure that he would actually learn this stupid language. 

It took fifteen minutes till all of that belief came down crashing but even then George just hugged and told him it would be okay. Alex believed him again. He would always believe George. 

#

Max was waiting at the parking lot after a long school day. He was leaning against the front of Daniel’s Renault just waiting for the teacher to come out. Every time he had seen the teacher in the hallways he had given him glances and he was sure that Daniel had noticed them. At least the blush on the older man’s face hinted at that. 

He had finally had first his biology lesson of the semester and he had spent the whole lesson just admiring Daniel. For his disappointment that teacher had left the class as soon as it was over. Not before stopping to look at Max for a moment though. 

“Max”, Max looked up from the ground hearing Daniel’s voice. Daniel shook his head a little walking over to his car but stopping a few meters away. “What you doing here?”

“You know what I am doing here”, Max smirked to Daniel right away pushing himself to stand fully. “Did you miss me during the summer? You seemed to have fun time in Australia at least.”

“You have been stalking my instagram?” Daniel crossed his arms over his chest letting a small smile appear to his lips. That only made Max more excited. “But no I don’t miss my students during summer holiday”

“Oh I would argue against that since I did see you accidentally liking my pictures on there”, Max smirk just grew bigger. Daniel’s smile fell right away. “Yeah I noticed that.”

Daniel bit inside of his mouth turning his gaze away from Max. Okay maybe the younger boy had a bit of the point to his statement but he ignored that. He hadn’t miss Max. Max was his student. Max was a troubled teenager. Max was eight years younger than him. 

(Max was also beyond confident, funny and determined. Daniel had to admit he liked those qualities a bit too much.) 

“What are you doing here Max?” Daniel asked again as he threw his bag to the backseat. 

“I was thinking maybe you could give me some biology tutoring” Max asked, giving Daniel an innocent smile. “I could really use some hand on hand teaching.”

“I know for a fact your biology number was your best grade”, Daniel noted and opening the car door but stopped to just look at Max. 

“Yeah I wonder how that happened”, Max said raising his brow. 

Max knew he did bad on that test. He knew it went terrible because he had spent the night before actually trying to study both English and math to pass them. Still somehow he had got only one grade lower than Pierre who had studied hours for it. 

“Anyway I am going to be late for the first training”, Max grabbed his bag from the ground. He gave Daniel a smile and a wink. “See you later Daniel.”

Daniel looked at Max walk away. He swallowed hard as he got to the car. That boy was going to be the death of him. 

#

It was the first training sessions for the football team but Pierre was much more focused on Charles than anything else. He had thought he was early to the training since Max had said he had something to do first - the look on the other boy’s face had told enough what that something was - so Pierre had headed to the locker room right away. He was surprised to find Charles already just sitting in front of his locker clearly lost in his thoughts. 

“Charles?” Pierre asked carefully from his new roommate and walked closer to him. He waved his hand a bit in front of Charles’ face. “You okay?”

That seemed to get Charles to snap out of wherever he was. He looked up to Pierre but it still took him a few minutes to say anything. Pierre just looked at him worry just growing bigger in him. It seemed like all Charles did nowadays was sleep but the dark circles under his eyes told a different story. 

“Yeah I am fine just… thought of stuff”, Charles gave Pierre a soft smile quickly standing up to open his locker. “So first training in a while. That is exciting.”

The first days of being Charles’ roommate had been… odd. There was nothing that Pierre could really complain about but something was off about Charles. He wasn’t the same guy that still last year enjoyed getting all the possible attention. He was always joking around and spending time in the common room. Even Max coming to talk to Pierre to the room had got nothing out of Charles. This Charles was a ghost of what he had been just a year ago. 

“Yeah”, Pierre said not moving just looking at Charles. “You know if something is wrong you can tell me right?” 

“Everything is okay Pierre”, Charles gave Pierre a smile. “But thank you.”

Pierre nodded to Charles before heading to his own locker. Charles looked Pierre go for a bit longer before starting to pull his training gear out of the locker. They two boys started changing their clothes in silence. 

The lessons were a perfect distraction from his thoughts but whenever those were done his mind started to bring back all the memories from before Milton Keynes. He kept thinking about his father. He kept thinking about Jules. He rather stay in his bed and listen to music to get away than try and be around people. Even when he knew that that was maybe the better decision. He just didn’t want to worry anyone. 

As soon as Charles was ready he left to the field. Pierre meanwhile just sat on the bench in front of his locker and started scrolling his phone. He didn’t believe that Charles’ answer that everything would be okay. But he knew no one liked to be pushed to talk about stuff. He just needed to naturally get closer to Charles. 

“No don’t wanna hear about it”, Pierre told Max as soon as his best friend opened the locker next to his. Max chuckled a little as he started changing. “You are playing a stupid and dangerous game with him.”

“Yeah but he is still yet to say straight and serious no to me”, Max noted to Pierre speaking more quietly not to draw any attention to them. “He didn’t even try to say he hadn’t been to my instagram.”

“This will not end well you know that right?” Pierre sighed standing up. Max just shrugged as he pulled his jersey on. “You are so stupid.”

Max just rolled his eyes with a smile while Pierre walked out of the locker room. Some of the team was already on the field but Charles was just kicking a ball alone on the side. Pierre looked at him for a moment before deciding to straight to him. He would train with Pierre this training session. Max can go to hell. 

Max was the last one to finally get to the field just as the coach was starting the session. They started warming up as pairs and for a moment he searched for Pierre. He noticed him talking with Charles and Max gave Pierre a confusing look but Pierre just shook his head a bit to him. For his luck Max didn’t have time to look for another pair when George got to him. 

“Wanna be pair?” George smiled to Max who nodded to him right away. He and George took some space for each other for kicking when George started speaking again. “I have been actually meaning to talk to you about something.”

“About what?” Max asked bit confused. He thought George was a nice guy and they had had some good nights in the common room playing racing games but he wouldn’t say they were exactly good friends. 

“About Lando”, George told Max. Oh, Max thought and just nodded to George. “I just… can you look out for him a bit. I think he is really nervous about suddenly being here and when things get overwhelming to him he shuts down quickly and… I am just trying to be a good friend.” 

“So you want me to look after him?” Max asked to be sure. “To keep my eye on him?”

Max had nothing to complain about Lando. Sure they had only been roommates for like four days but the boy seemed fine whenever they were in the room together. Lando would usually be either playing on his switch, studying or drawing something on a notebook. They chatted about the school day always a bit and they had played a few rounds of Mario kart. It was all fine. 

“If you just could?” George smiled at Max softly. “Or at least tell me if you find something worrying.”

Max nodded to George before kicking the ball to him. Seemed like an easy job, he thought. 

#

It took a bit more than a week of being in the boarding school till Lando broke down. He was curled to a ball on his bed blanket pulled fully on him and there were tears going down on his cheeks. 

He couldn’t understand why he was even crying. Everything was going well. The classes were fine and he was on top of everything. He got to spend time with George and Alex who were both really kind to him. Actually everyone in his classes were nice to him even though he was a new student. Being roommates with Max was going fine too. It wasn’t awkward whenever they were together in the room and he had become brave enough to ask the boy to play with him. 

But here he was crying under the blanket feeling miserable. He had come to the room as soon as his lesson had ended. He knew Max would be in a football training so he could just hide in his bed for a moment before starting to study. He just hadn’t noticed how fast the time had gone. 

“Lando?” Lando bit his lower lip not to make a sound when he heard Max’s voice over him. Lando just pulled himself more to a ball under the blanket quickly trying to wipe his tears away. “Lando what is wrong?”

Max crouched down on the floor next to Lando’s bed slowly trying to pull the blanket off Lando. This was definitely not what he had imagined to walk in to. For a moment he thought if he should have just leave to find George but then Lando slowly sat up on his bed. He frantacily wiped his face off tears and Max felt his heart ache for the other boy a little. 

“Has something happen?” Max asked carefully from Lando while staying down. Lando avoided looking at him. “Has someone done something? Do I have to beat up someone for you? Because I will do it.”

Lando felt a little smile come to his face with Max’s last words. Only that sentence proved that everything was so much better here than at his old school but here he was still sobbing. He took a deep breath before daring to look at Max. Max gave Lando a comforting smile right away. 

“Nothing happened”, Lando said in a tiny voice just leaning against the wall just wrapping the blanket around him tightly. “It’s just… gosh I am so pathetic.”

“Wha- what is it Lando?” Max asked again head a bit to the side. Lando already looked younger than his age but somehow he looked even smaller and younger. 

“I am just homesick”, Lando said looking down to his hands. He sniffed a little. Now that he started there was no going back. “Nothing has happen. Everything has actually been really great here and I have nothing to complain about but I am still here a freaking sobbing mess and making a fool of myself because I miss my mom and dad. I am 17 and I miss my mom and dad… I am so stupid.”

Lando pressed his face against his hands not wanting to see Max look at him like he was a scared kid. He would laugh at him and tell everyone and then everyone would bully him and he would actually have to move back home and then the hell of the old sch-.

Lando’s train of thought got cut off when he felt Max sit next to him on the bed. Max wrapped his arms around Lando tightly while moving his fingers in Lando’s hair. That was all that was to send Lando back to full sobbing. But Max just pulled him closer holding him close without saying anything. 

“You are not pathetic for missing your parents”, Max spoke after Lando had calmed down again. He still had his fingers in Lando’s hair. “Moving here is a lot specially in second year. Is fine Lando. You are okay.”

Lando was pouting but nodded a little wiping tears away again. He turned to look at Max a little trying to smile at him. He couldn’t understand why the other boy was so kind to him. What had he done to deserve this? 

“You must miss Pierre now”, Lando tried joking pulling himself away from Max just a bit but still staying in the other boy’s arms. “Having a sobbing mess as a roommate must be great.”

“You think that not almost all of us are sobbing messes here at one point or another?” Max chuckled a little to Lando. “Honestly don’t stress about it. Though I rather have you tell me when you feel bad so I can try and help before you are an absolute mess.”

Lando chuckled a little at that shaking his head. Nothing could possible be that bad if he had someone as cool as Max as his roommate. The bad feeling will pass, Lando told himself. It will all be okay. 

“I wouldn’t exactly take you for the sobbing mess type”, Lando tried joking a little to Max wanting to show he was fine. 

“I said almost all of us”, Max smirked to Lando with a wink. Lando felt his cheeks blush a little. “Okay now go wash your face and we will play Mario Kart. You will forget all about today. Deal?” 

“Deal.”

Max loosened his arms around Lando as the smaller boy stood up slowly. Lando headed to the bathroom right away to wash his face. He stopped to look at himself after drying his face. His cheeks were so pink and he knew it wasn’t only because of crying. He almost felt like smiling. What is happening, he thought. 

As he got back to the room Max was still sitting on his bed this time with Lando’s switch getting the game on. Lando stopped by his bed just looking at Max for a moment not sure where he should sit. Part of him wanted back to Max’s arms. It was like Max read his mind because when the other boy looked up Lando he opened his arms right away for him again. Lando bit his lower lip not to smile too much as he got back to Max’s arms. 

Max gazed to Lando while the other boy was picking the tracks for them. He thought about how well Lando fitted to his arms and how adorable the boy looked even now. I definitely don’t miss Pierre, he thought a bit trying not to smile while looking at Lando. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading again :3 kudos and comments make my heart go crazy!
> 
> Merry Christmas and happy holidays. Stay safe! I will be back with third chapter after Christmas days (aka sunday) <3
> 
> My tumblr : [maxynorris](https://maxynorris.tumblr.com/)


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First football game of the year ends with a victory which means a party, bad decisions and confessions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I just finish this chapter? Yes. Am I very unsure of this chapter? Yes! Did it come out more angsty than it was suppose? Yep that's my style. Do I hope you (reader) likes it? Desperately!

“Have you ever thought about that maybe you don’t remember the words because you are too stressed over learning everything?” Lando asked carefully from Alex as they were walking towards the football field. “I mean that can’t be healthy anymore you know.”

It was the end of the third school week and the first football game of the season. It seemed like the whole school was on their way to watch the match. Lando wasn’t really into sports. He rather stay inside and play with computers but this time he was very excited. He was excited to see George and of course Max play. Especially Max but he wouldn’t admit that to anyone. 

After his breakdown Lando had expected everything to get at least somewhat awkward. Maybe Max’s soft moment for him really was just a weird moment but somehow it had made everything even better between them. Max had started spending more time in their room and now almost every night ended with them two playing together on switch while tucked under the same blanket. Lando had started losing almost every game and while Max loved teasing him about it Lando knew why it was so. It was hard to focus on the game when his cheeks were always bright red and his head beat like crazy. He definitely had a crush.

“You starting to sound like George”, Alex hummed while he flipped through the flashcards of biology terms. He had got to a good mindset for studying and he wouldn’t miss it. “And anyway if we win this game then we will be a huge party and I won’t spend the next day studying.”

And because George forbade me from studying on Saturdays, Alex thought but didn’t say that outloud. He knew the school year had just started but he really just wanted to be able to stay on top of everything. If he didn’t do that then he would be screwed when all the deadlines and exams would be coming before Christmas. 

He knew he was going a bit over with everything but he just wanted to make his parents proud and stay in the school. His parents put a lot into his education and it would kill him if he didn’t succeed in it and get to the best universities there will be. And he knew George was going to go to the best university there will be and he really wasn’t ready to let go off his best friend. 

“Okay that is enough”, Alex sighed putting his flashbacks in his jacket pocket. Lando gave his friend a big smile right away. “Okay let’s go grab good seats so we can cheer Georg- I mean the team.”

They got to their seats just as the teams were coming to the field for warm up. Alex’s eyes were following George on the field. George was definitely the best defender in the team and Alex was so proud of his friend. He knew how important football was to George and how much he wanted to win the championship. Winning it would finally mean beating Lewis in something. 

“We better win this”, Alex told Lando as the referee blew on his whistle. “I really want to party tonight.”

#

Winning the game ended up being child’s play for the team. They ended up winning with three goals. Max, Pierre and Charles all getting one goal each. Everyone was going crazy after the win and it seemed that if winning the game was easy, getting the party on was even easier. 

The rule of no alcohol or other illegal substances in the school was long gone as the whole third year common room was full of drinks and people from all the years. The music and partying must be heard outside the common room but Alex explained to Lando this always happened and no one actually cared.

“Here comes our winner!” Alex smiled excited as George walked over to him and Lando. The whole common room had bursted to more screaming when the team had arrived. George gave a quick smile before grabbing the closest vodka bottle and shot glasses. “What’s up with the long face?”

“I sent a message to our family’s whatsapp group like to tell everyone that we won the first game”, George groaned opening the bottle and starting to pour shots. “But Lewis just couldn’t let me have it and had to tell how he had got the best grade from the first quizz so all everyone commented was that.”

“I am so sorry Ge-”, Lando started but George stopped him with pushing a shot to his hand. 

“Nope don’t wanna talk about it”, George said right away giving Alex a shot too before taking one for himself. “Just want to party and get wasted.”

George clinked all of their shot glasses together and downed the shot quickly. Alex looked at his friend for a tiny moment before downing his one too. George needed this, he thought. Meanwhile Lando stared at the shot for the longest. He had never drunk. But as George was already pouring more shots there was nothing else to do than drink the shot quickly.

#

Pierre didn’t usually drink much. He didn’t care for getting drunk and to be honest most of the time he had to look after way too drunk/high Max for everyone’s safety. That was at least mostly before moving to the boarding school. This time Max was sitting next to him on a sofa scrolling through instagram. His friend still had his first beer in hand and was in no hurry to drink it. This meant Pierre could focus on other things like… well Charles. 

It was a bit surprising Charles had even come to the party. Of course the old Charles from a year ago would have been middle of the dancing crowd letting lose but now the other boy was just sitting in a corner with few people. It seemed like he had zoned out of the conversation a long time ago.

”You are starting to get obsessive”, Pierre turned to look at Max who was looking at him with a raised brow. ”You changing me for the pretty boy?”

”Oh you found out my plan”, Pierre chuckled and turned to look at Charles again. Max moved his gaze to Charles too. ”Nah I am just worried. He seems to be kinda off.”

”You are right”, Max hummed in a more serious tone looking at Charles standing up and walking to the balcony. ”But maybe getting back to school has just been a weird after summer… he will be back to being annoying twat soon anyway.” 

Pierre rolled his eyes looking at Charles go. Trying to give Charles space wasn’t clearly working. Time to try something different, Pierre thought standing up. 

”Obsessive”, he heard Max say but he only flipped at him as he walked towards the balcony. 

Charles leaned against the railing of the balcony just enjoying the cold air. He was shivering a little but being outside was calming. He had only drunk a few drinks, not really in the party mood but at least he was a bit buzzed. He just kept looking to the stars taking deep breaths. 

“You are gonna catch a cold”, Charles smiled a little when he heard Pierre’s voice behind him. He felt Pierre place a jacket around his shoulders. 

“Thanks”, Charles said quietly gazing to Pierre a bit before looking up to the stars again. 

Pierre leaned against the railing next to Charles looking to the sky as well. This time he wouldn’t let Charles get away. He wouldn’t let his friend suffer in silence anymore. He however didn’t know Charles had the exact same plans. 

“You know why I came here to study?” Charles asked knowing very well no one had no idea. Pierre looked to Charles and shook his head. “My father passed away last summer. I had also lost a good friend the few years before. I couldn’t stay in Monaco one bit longer and I asked mom to get me a school place here.”

Charles didn’t know why he was telling this now to Pierre. Maybe it was the bit of alcohol in his veins. Maybe it was the fact that he could see how much Pierre cared and worried over him. Maybe it was because he trusted Pierre now. Maybe it was just that he was tired of being in pain alone. It felt like the pain wasn’t leaving with staying quiet anyway. 

Pierre looked to Charles while the other boy’s gaze was still fixated to the stars. Pierre moved closer wrapping one arm around Charles while he waited for Charles to continue. Charles took a deep breathe before placing his head on Pierre’s shoulder. 

“It worked the first year”, Charles said quietly. “I was able to forget about everything that had happened. I wasn’t sad. I was just enjoying living here and all the new people. But then I went back home for the summer and all of it came to me again. Sadness and longing yeah but also guilt because I had been happy. Now I am stuck in those bad feelings. That is why I am so… weird now.”

Even though Pierre had been wondering what had happened since the start of the school he had never imagined this. But it all slowly clicked in his head and started to make sense. At least now I know how to try to help, Pierre thought and pulled Charles more to him. 

“Thank you for telling me all of this”, Pierre said after a moment, still just looking at Charles. “Charles what you need to understand is that all of those feelings are okay. But you don’t have to be alone with them. From this moment on I will be supporting you okay? We will get the old Charles back. Yeah?”

Charles turned his head to look at Pierre. There were tears in Charles’ eyes as he looked at Pierre. He trusted Pierre but giving in was harder… but at the same time he was so done with being alone with all of it. He took a deep breath before nodding to his roommate. Pierre gave him a soft smile before both of them went back to looking to the stars. 

They stayed there side by side looking to the stars for ten more minutes. Charles had placed his head again on Pierre’s shoulder while Pierre stroke Charles’ arm softly. Everything would be okay, both of them thought. 

“Okay you are shivering so much we are gonna go inside and sleep now”, Pierre broke the silence finally taking a step back. Charles pouted a bit automatically but took Pierre’s hand that the other boy was offering. “Come on.”

They didn’t say anything to each other as they walked to their room just still holding hands. They took turns using the bathroom and getting ready to sleep all in silence just sharing small gazes and smiles to each other. When they were both finally laying in their own beds, Pierre checking his phone and Charles just staring at the ceiling, Charles spoke again. 

“Pierre?” Charles said voice already sleepy sounding. 

“Yeah?” Pierre put his phone away turning on his side to look at Charles. 

“I am really glad you are my roommate now.”

“Me too.”

Charles moved his head to look at Pierre. He gave him a soft smile before pulling the blanket fully on him and turning to sleep on his side. Pierre smiled to himself looking at Charles for a moment before turning the lights off. Really glad, Pierre thought as he closed his eyes. 

#

The party was still going on as Max was standing on the balcony with a cigarette between his fingers. Parties like this were fun yes but they had nothing compared to the parties before boarding school. So he just rather enjoy the music and atmosphere without getting black out drunk. Especially when he had more interesting plans. 

'looking good mr ricciardo'

He had once again caught Daniel checking his instagram story (this time group picture of the team after the win) which had led him straight away to Daniel's story and dms. Looking at the stories Daniel surely was drunk with some friends in a club. There were stories of him taking shots, singing karaoke and dancing with shirt open. He looked hot and vulnerable. It didn't take long for Daniel to answer.

'u stalk me max'

'yeah? got a problem? you started it' 

'no' 

Max read Daniel's message with a little chuckle. Max knew this is beyond stupid but like he told Pierre Daniel had never actually said no to him. So what's wrong with little play? Specially when Daniel is so hot. 

'would love to do shots off you mr ricciardo' 

'... max' 

'yes? you are hot. i am hot.' 

'true' 

'let's do this'

It took a moment before Dan sent an answer that left Max's staring at his phone mouth open.

'come here then' and an address

Wait…. Wait! Max stared at his phone for a moment. This was actually happening. This was suppose to be a fun game and lot of teasing. Max looked at the message a bit longer. If Pierre was there he would be telling him no. But he had left with Charles like an hour ago. There was no one to stop him. 

'on my way' 

Max left the party quickly walking to his bedroom to get his jacket on. This was happening. He dialed the taxi company's number as he walked. This was actually happening. 

"Hello I need a taxi to outside Milton Keyn-" Max opened the door to his room but stopped right away when he heard gagging noises from the bathroom. "I… will call you again soon." 

Max threw his phone to his bed as he knocked on the bathroom door. All he could hear was muffled crying noises. He opened the door carefully. "Lando?"

Lando had his face pressed against his hands just crying against them. He hadn't wanted to show Alex and George he had never drunk anything and this was the result. He had been throwing up for the last half an hour. He felt dizzy and it had been hard enough to just make it to the room. 

Max forgot about everything else when he saw Lando on the floor. He grabbed a big glass filling it with cold water and a soft cloth wetting it quickly with cold water. Max sat down to the floor and softly placed his hand on Lando’s shoulder. 

”Lando? Look at me”, Lando moved his hands off his face slowly. Max gave him a soft smile giving the cloth to him. ”Wipe your face with this. You feel like you can throw up still?”

Lando shook his head slowly while starting to wipe his face off. Max pushed the glass to Lando’s hand next before he stood up from the floor again. Max threw the cloth to the laundry and flushed the toilet before walking back to their room to get Lando’s bed ready. Getting a bucket close to the bed and finding painkillers. It was about time he did this for someone and not have someone do it for him, he thought. 

Lando focused on getting the water down slowly. His throat felt like it was on fire from all the throwing up and his whole mind was foggy. He wasn’t even fully sure if Max was really helping him or was he just imagining everything but just the thought had managed to make him stop crying. He finished the water and leaned against the wall closing his eyes. 

“Lando”, Lando wasn’t sure how much time had passed but the next time he opened his eyes Max’s hand was on his cheeks. It took a moment for Lando to be able to focus his gaze to Max who was looking at him with that kind smile again. The smile made Lando want to smile too. “I’m going to pull you up and get you to bed okay?” 

Lando nodded right away. Bed sounded amazing, he thought. Max took hold on Lando’s arms and pulled him off the bathroom floor carefully. Lando fell straight to Max’s arms but the other boy didn’t seem bothered by it just wrapping arms around him helping him walk to the bedroom side, sitting him on his bed. 

“Was this first time you got drunk?” Max asked while starting to help Lando get his shoes and jumper off him to make sleeping more comfortable. 

“Yeah”, Lando said with a rough voice that was barely louder than a whisper. “I… sorry.”

“It’s okay don’t worry”, Max promised him as he slowly pushed Lando to lay on the bed. “Now you are going to sleep. If you feel like throwing up there is a bucket next to your bed and water glass if you get thirsty.” 

Lando nodded slowly to Max just letting the other boy push him to the bed. He let out a happy sigh when his head hit the soft pillow. He closed his eyes right away while Max tucked the blanket on him. He opened his eyes again when he felt Max start to move away. He grabbed his hand quickly. 

“I… I…”, Lando coughed a little to get his voice better while he had his arms wrapped around Max’s wrist. Max looked to Lando with a worried gaze right away. “Thank you Max.”

Max felt like million butterflies started dancing in his stomach at that moment. When Lando gave him a tired smile, Max smiled too before slowly leaning down to place a kiss on Lando’s messy hair. It felt natural. He whispered to the other boy’s ear: “Sleep.”

Max moved to sit on own bed while just looking at Lando snuggle the pillow and fall asleep almost right away. Max leaned against the wall and closed his eyes for a moment before suddenly remembering. Daniel! 

‘max?’

‘you come?’ 

‘MAX’

There were three messages on his phone when he grabbed it again. When Lando had needed him he had forgotten all about Daniel and where he was suppose to be going. He looked between Lando and the clock before just shaking his head. He couldn’t leave Lando and he wasn’t sure anymore that he wanted to leave the other boy. Fuck, he thought as he typed message to Daniel. 

‘sorry my roommate needed me and i can’t leave him… some other time’

Max put his phone to the charger leaving it on his desk before changing his clothes. There were million thoughts in his mind going way too fast. Max looked at Lando one more moment before shutting the light and getting to his own bed under the blanket. 

Should he still go? Should have he ever go? Did this mean Daniel really really wanted him? Did he want Daniel? What had happened to Lando? What had Lando done to him? Why was he ready to drop everything for Lando? All in all the question was: what the hell is happening to me, Max thought.

One sleepless night it is then, Max thought as he closed his eyes only focusing on listening to Lando’s soft breathing and snuffles. 

#

George hadn't been joking when he said he really wanted to party and get wasted. He was downing drinks left and right. At the same time Alex tried to be a supportive friend keeping up with George's drinking. At some point of the night they had lost Lando but that was one of their least important issues when they simply tried to get to their bedrooms a few hours later. They were both supporting each other as they walked. 

"Fuck I have neve this drunk", George slurred out as they got to his room somehow managing to fall to his bed. He chuckled a little running his hand through his hair. 

"Morning will suck", Alex chuckled while slowly sitting on George's bed. He rubbed his face for a moment. "I wait dizziness away" 

"You sleep here", George told Alex starting to pull Alex to lay next to him and to get a blanket on both of them. When Alex was about to argue George just shushed him. "Sleep!"

The bed was definitely not meant for two tall boys but somehow the pair ended up finding a comfortable position. Alex's arms were wrapped around George's waist while George had his face pressed against Alex's neck. It didn't take long before both were sleeping with smiles on their faces. 

"Fucking finally", Nicholas whispered when he got to the room and saw the two boys in his roommate's bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys liked that heh... Thank you for reading again! Fourth chapters continues straight on from this and I will post it on the first day of the new year! 
> 
> My tumblr : [maxynorris](https://maxynorris.tumblr.com/) where I did this [fun ship thing](https://maxynorris.tumblr.com/tagged/ship-meme) (when I was stuck with this) if you wanna check it


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After match of the party in the last chapter: hangover mornings, opening up and helpful friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy new year! Let the 2021 be kind to you and bring you what you need :3
> 
> This chapter became an absolute monster. It's over 4k words :D I am not that happy with the Pierre/Charles scene but I promise good and happier stuff are coming their way! I hope you enjoy this!

When Lando woke up the next morning his head was pounding and his whole body felt heavy. He pulled the blanket more on him trying to protect his eyes from the light in the room. He tried to focus on just breathing and trying to calm himself for a moment. He tried to think about what actually had happened the night before. 

He had drunk, yes. Quite a lot actually. Way too much honestly, Lando thought closing his eyes even more shut. He remembered trying to keep up with Alex and George but also failing terribly at it. He had lost his friends at one point and he started to quickly feel bad. He had somehow managed to get back to his room where he had ended up throwing up. And then Max had came. 

Max, Lando groaned a little. Max saw him in that state. No. Not only saw but actually had to take care of him. Once again. If crying thanks to homesickness wasn’t too much to make the other boy run away this surely had to be, Lando thought. When will I learn not to fuck up? 

Lando heard the door to the room open. He slowly moved the blanket out of his way peeking under the blanket. Max had his headphones on as he walked to the room in gym clothes. He had been clearly on a run. Why did he look so good even now? I must look so bad now, Lando thought. 

“Ah you are finally awake”, Max’s voice brought Lando back to the real world. Max smiled to Lando as he sat down on his own bed taking headphones off. “How you feeling?”

“Like death”, Lando said with hoarse voice slowly sitting up on the bed leaning to the wall. He rubbed his face a little and just pulled the blanket up to his chin. “I am never drinking again.”

“Sure”, Max smirked a little before nodding to Lando’s nightstand. “Take that painkiller and drink the whole glass empty. I also brought you some toast and grapes from the cafeteria when I went to get breakfast.”

“You some hangover pro?” Lando asked trying to smile to Max as he slowly moved to get the pill. 

“You could say that.”

Max smiled smugly and Lando rolled his eyes a little with a little smile. He swallowed the pill quickly emptying the glass. Before he even had time to put the glass down Max grabbed it from his hand going to the bathroom to fill it up again. Lando looked at Max go and felt his cheeks blush. Max really took good care of him. 

“How are you pro in this?” Lando asked when Max came back with a full glass of cold water. Lando tried nibbling at the toast slowly. “You didn’t even drink yesterday.”

“You were keeping your eyes on me?” Max smirked a little as he sat to his bed again. Lando felt his cheeks blush even more. “I did my party days before this place. I have a lot of experience on hangovers and party nights gone wrong trust me.”

“Is that why you are here now?” Lando asked carefully moving his gaze to the toast. Max definitely wasn’t there to get the best education, Lando thought. “You party too much and got sent here?”

Even after being roommates for weeks now, Max was still a mystery to Lando. Mystery that Lando very much wanted to solve. While Lando didn’t enjoy silence and talked a lot, Max never talked about himself. There were glimpses then and there but nothing more. 

“I guess… ”, Max shrugged a little, moving his gaze to look at his hands. “The drinking and smoking definitely didn’t help my case when my dad found me and one of his guy interns in the same bed after one party. But mostly the reason is being gay I guess… and just being pure disappointment in all the ares of life.”

Max said it all so casually like it wasn’t even a big deal while Lando just stared at him eyes wide. One thing Max had never mentioned was his family. Even if he referred to time before the boarding school, it was always some story with Pierre. Never anything about his family. Now he definitely understood why. 

“You… that’s shitty”, Lando said after a moment as he looked at Max. “That really sucks. Sorry your dad is such an ass.”

“Is fine”, Max said and smiled a little. “At least when I am here I am away from him so… that’s a positive. And the partying would have probably killed me soon anyway… or Pierre would have killed me for being such a mess back then.”

Max said the last sentence with a soft laugh like nothing was wrong. Lando really doubted that Max was actually fine with what had happened but he didn’t feel like pushing his luck. He was starting to feel more dizzy slowly and he laid down on the bed again carefully. Max just watched him.

“Thank you for helping me”,' Lando told Max changing the topic. Max smiled to him right away. “Yesterday and now… I didn’t mean to get that drunk… or drunk at all. You are always helping me when I’m a mess.”

“Happy to help”, Max said simply with a smile. “There were nowhere I rather be anyway than helping a friend.”

Or well… Max thought. The night of thinking and trying to understand his feelings didn’t leave him with any realisations about his feelings. But he had to admit seeing Lando smile to him and thank him really did make the night before feel all worth it. Max sighed before standing up. 

“Okay you need more sleep”, Max told Lando with a smile. “I will shower and go play ps4 to the common room. Come get me if you need something.”

Lando nodded a little to Max whispering another thank you to him before closing his eyes. A nap sounded really good. There were too many things to process now. 

#

Pierre and Charles’ morning was quiet. Pierre woke up first from the two. It was rare if Charles was still asleep whenever Pierre got up, so he left to get breakfast alone to give his friend some peace. He was surprised when he found Charles sound asleep when he came back. Maybe the talking really helped, Pierre thought and looked at sleeping Charles for a moment before going to his school books and starting to read. 

Charles woke up an hour later mostly just feeling confused about actually sleeping so long. He was so used to waking up way too early in the morning and just spent the rest of the night turning and trashing. Now he actually felt rested and like for once he wasn’t that tired. It took a moment before remembering everything from the day before. 

“Morning”, Charles said running his hand through his hair as he sat up. “What time is it?”

“Morning”, Pierre smiled to Charles softly. “It’s almost eleven. You slept well?”

“Yeah”, Charles nodded a little just taking a moment to breathe. “Oh fuck breakfast.”

Charles hurried to the bathroom to change and leave to get breakfast when that would still be served in the cafeteria while Pierre stayed behind in the room. It wasn’t that he was actually that hungry. He just wasn’t sure how to spend time with Pierre now. He didn’t regret telling Pierre about everything but at the same time he still wasn’t sure if he was ready for it all. The night had just been a weak moment when he opened up. 

But there is no going back now, he thought and sighed. At least he had actually been able to sleep for the first time in forever. Maybe this would be good. 

When Charles came back to the room, Pierre was still sitting by his desk flipping through a history book. Charles sat down on his bed battling with himself to wherever to start talking or not about the night before. Pierre took that decision away from him. 

“About yesterday”, Pierre turned to look at Charles. He had been going through what he would say in his head for the last hour. “I stand by everything I said. I will support you however you need. I want to help you and you can trust me. I want for you to feel better and just… get you back. If you just want that of course?”

“How will we do that exactly?” Charles asked carefully after a moment of silence. Pierre tilted his head a bit confused. “Get me back.”

“Oh”, Pierre said but stopped for a moment. He felt Charles looking at him as he stood up and moved to sit on his bed in front of Charles. “I lost a really close friend a few years ago too. I am not saying that I understand anything from your pain dear god no but I have gone through grief and the feelings at least on some level.”

“So what is the plan then?” Charles asked leaning against the wall. 

Charles knew he was possible being too hard on the other boy. Pierre just wanted to help him. But at the same time it was a really touchy subject and he knew there wasn’t any sudden thing to change. On the other hand hearing Pierre say that he had also lost someone made him a bit more curious about what the other boy can offer. 

“There is no plan”, Pierre said, lowering his gaze. “Grief is just a lot of small steps. Mostly forward but then you also take some back and that’s fine. It’s not about forgetting the person. You will always miss them and want them back but… it’s just coming more peace with what happened and remembering the good things in them. You will still have moments when all you want to do is cry because you miss them so bad but… those moments come easier and you let yourself be sad for those moments.”

“But what you need to start with is letting yourself feel all the emotions”, Pierre continued quietly. “You shouldn't be beating yourself up because you feel like you aren’t doing grief right. No. Everyone does it differently and if you feel guilty about being too happy just think that the people you lost probably rather see you be happy than sad. And if you feel like you are too sad that is okay too.”

“I know those are just messy thoughts but”, Pierre shrugged and lifted his gaze to look at Charles. “Grief is something you just need to go through even though it hurts. But you can make it easier for yourself too.”

Charles looked to Pierre and just nodded a bit. What Pierre said did make sense. He knew he was just fighting a battle against his own feelings but he wasn’t sure what to do to fix it. To make his mind stop. 

“So how do you make it easier?” Charles asked carefully still looking at Pierre. “What things helped you?”

“Praying and god but I know that isn’t for everyone”, Pierre told Charles. “Mostly just not being alone. Don’t get me wrong you definitely need time for yourself but then you get stuck to it and just always want to be alone. Max really helped me with not letting me be alone even when I sometimes asked for it. He knew what was best for me.”

Charles hummed a bit. Being alone he knew well now. Before he had always been very social and open but now being alone felt like the right choice even though it also hurted. 

“I am just offering that maybe you could come to the common room more often”, Pierre shrugged a bit. “Stay after the training with the team. Don’t spend all of your time here alone. It won’t do any good. Everyone here really likes you and would love it when you hang out with us. I promise you.”

Charles didn’t react to that in any way just looking to his hands. There was a chance that Pierre really was right, he thought. But he didn’t say anything and the roommates sat there in a silence for awhile. 

“You probably have a lot of things to think about”, Pierre broke the silence and stood up. “I am gonna go to the common room and give you space. Come there if you feel like it.”

“Thank you Pierre”, Charles said softly and looked at the other boy with a soft smile. 

Pierre smiled softly to Charles giving him a small nod. Pierre got out of the room and took a deep breath. It could have gone worse, he thought. Possibly also gone better. I really don’t know what I am doing, he thought and groaned. He just wished he hadn’t messed up too bad. 

#

Alex was the first one to wake from the pair in George’s bed. His head was pounding and he refused to open his eyes. He definitely needed water but didn’t want to move away from the bed and possible wake George. If he was able to ignore the physical bad feeling everything felt good.

George’s face was pressed against Alex’s neck while Alex’s arms were around George. Their legs were tangled together both. There was no way the boys could be closer to each other and Alex definitely didn’t want to break the moment. 

His and George’s habit of laying on the bed together did sometimes also end up in napping together but they still never ended up cuddling. The closest was sometimes waking up holding each other’s hands. They brushed it off as a ”oops” and ”wow we really must miss touch here”. 

Alex definitely wasn’t against this. It was surprising how good it actually felt. He liked George of course. He was his best friend. The person he trusted the most. The person who made him believe in himself. The person he wanted to be around when he was at his lowest and highest. George was also very handsome. Anyone could see that. 

Wait this is starting to sound like a crush, Alex thought and frowned a little. He opened his eyes slowly at the thought and turned to look at the sleeping boy. Too many thoughts, he thought.

Alex didn’t have much time to start to figure out his thoughts when George started moving slowly first just pushing himself against Alex before realising what he was doing. Alex closes his eyes deciding in panic to play waking up as well. George started pushing himself a bit away from Alex just looking around confused while Alex let his arms let go off George slowly opening his eyes. 

“Wha- what even”, George managed to form as he rubbed his face. “What happened yesterday?” 

Please tell me this is a bad dream or something please let this not be real, George thought but when he moved his hands off his face Alex was still in his bed looking straight to him. Alex was in his bed. They had slept in the same bed. Cuddled to each other. Still way too close to each other. 

Before Alex was able to answer anything George felt his stomach twist and he jumped out of the bed running straight to the bathroom making it just in time to throw up everything he had in his stomach to the toilet. That could have gone better, Alex thought standing up right away to follow George but had to stop to steady himself. Okay you can’t feel sick now Alex, he told himself. George is the priority. 

“George you okay?” Alex walked carefully to the bathroom grabbing some glasses from the shelf. He filled on glass for him and another for George before sinking down to the bathroom floor next to his friend. He ran his hand on George’s back as he other boy coughed the last bit out. “George should I get someone?”

“No just give me a moment”, George said with a tired voice just leaning to his hands. When he was sure he couldn’t throw up more he pulled back grabbing the glass from the floor. “I have never felt this bad. How are you so okay?”

“Oh I am not”, Alex chuckled a little while finishing his glass. “My head feels like it will explode and I definitely will need a moment to just sit here if I wanna get up without getting dizzy.”

George let out a little chuckle at that and gazed to Alex. Alex always knew what to do to get him feel better. He tried to slowly drink the water but gave up halfway through the glass. There was sharp pain going through his brain and all he wanted was to curl to a ball on the cold floor. He couldn’t even think about anything with the awful feeling he had.

“I don’t remember anything from last night”, George groaned pressing his face to his hands. “How much of a fool I made of myself? How much did I drink? How did we end up sleeping in the same bed?”

“You are asking those questions from the wrong person”, Alex hummed closing his eyes. He moved his hand to move it up and down George’s back. “I do remember some bits… pretty sure the sleeping in your bed was your idea…”

George just groaned loudly at that. His idea? Well it did sound about right, but dear god he wished that he hadn’t done that. Alex was his best friend. If Alex would find out that he had a crush on him that would be it for their friendship. He started to feel a bit ill again. 

Alex gazed to George biting his lower lip a bit. Sleeping cuddled was actually nice, but apparently George didn’t think that. Alex felt an uncomfortable feeling in his chest. Maybe George didn’t want him close. Maybe their boundaries were broken now. Maybe I broke them, Alex thought. 

“George is fine”, Alex tried to tell his friend. He ignored the little pain in his heart. “We forget all about yesterday if you want.”

“Well that is easy”, George tried to joke before feeling wave of sickness wash over him and he turned to the toilet again. 

Alex continued just stroking George’s back while trying to ignore every feeling in his mind. When he was sure George was okay and back to resting on the bed, he left the room. He stopped to lean against the wall for a moment to gather himself. Everything felt so messed up. 

#

‘yesterday never happened’

‘we won’t talk about it’ 

‘max promise me you won’t tell anyone’

‘ I am very serious about this Max’ 

Max stared at Daniel’s messages just trying to think about what to answer. He could really have fun with this, he thought but the play really didn’t seem worth it. Before he would just be excited about this and maybe do some blackmailing. Hell if this had happened last spring he wouldn’t even be in this situation but in Daniel’s bed right now. Now though… 

‘i won’t tell anyone about yesterday’

Daniel didn’t need to know Pierre didn’t count as anyone. 

“I’m proud of you for not going to him”, Pierre said quietly while sitting next to Max on the common room’s huge sofa. They were playing Fifa against each other. “You made the right decision.”

“I didn’t make any decisions”, Max noted speaking quietly too even though there was no one else in the room. “Lando needed me and I had to help him. I couldn’t leave him.”

Pierre gazed to Max a bit before just nodding. He wouldn’t fight Max on this definitely not in a public place but he knew his best friend. To say Max didn’t care about other people was completely wrong. He cared a lot about the people he decided to care about like Pierre. Still caring for Lando so strongly was something new. And good, Pierre thought. 

“You got something out of Charles?” Max asked gazing to his friend a bit. “You guys left the party together.”

“Yeah apparently he is dealing with gr-”, Pierre stopped right away when he noticed Lando walking towards the sofa wrapped in a blanket. He gave the boy a smile right away. “Hey Lando.”

Lando nodded a little but stopped by the sofa just looking shy. He had been able to sleep for a few more hours and take a shower but just being in the room alone was starting to be overwhelming. His mind kept playing the night before and the talk with Max in the morning in a blur. He needed something else think when he still felt so weak. 

“Sorry I interrupted you guys”, Lando said in tiny voice cheeks blushed. 

“You didn’t”, Max told Lando right away looking at the boy. He opened his arms a bit to Lando and gave him a smile. “You okay?”

Lando gazed to Max before quickly nodding and walking to Max’s side. He wrapped the blanket tighter around himself while snuggling to Max’s side. Max smiled a bit letting his right arm go around Lando’s while continuing playing. He felt Pierre smirk next to him but he decided to ignore his friend. 

“I feel like I am dying”, George was next one to show up to the common room. He also had a blanket wrapped around him as he sat next Lando leaning on his friend. “Nicky is playing his music so loud my head was about to explode.”

“Maybe next time don’t do so many shots George”, Max smirked a bit eyes fixated on the tv. He could get used to being able to laugh at other people’s hangovers. “Or at least don’t give so many to Lando.”

Lando looked up to Max right away a bit. Max had been watching him, he thought cheeks blushing more just pulling the blanket to hide his face a bit. He turned his head to look at George who was looking at him a bit weird. 

“You okay Lan?” George asked softly from the other boy. “I didn’t force too many drinks on you right? I don’t really remember last night.”

“I’m fine”, Lando promised from Max’s side. He gave George a smile. “It’s nice to see you look like a mess for once.”

“Oh fuck off”, George pushed Lando a bit but chuckled. 

If you only knew how bad of a mess I am, George thought a bit. The bad physical feeling was slowly - too slowly - leaving his body and his mind was starting to race with thoughts more and more. He and Alex had freaking cuddled together and he doesn’t remember it. Alex said it was okay but what about if it wasn’t. I fucked up, George thought. 

The mess inside his head didn’t get any better when Alex came to the room next carrying a bowl of grapes with him. George and his gaze met and both just looked at himself for a moment before George sat up better opening his blanket a bit. Alex smiled softly and walked to sit next to George wrapping the blanket around them both. 

“I thought you haven’t probably eaten anything”, Alex told quietly to George with a smile and offered the bowl to him. 

“Thanks”, George whispered to him not trusting his voice. They looked at each other for a moment before both turned to just look at the game going on. 

The last one to show up was Charles. He stood a bit away from the sofa just looking at everyone on it. He had been thought about everything Pierre had told him. He felt so much like an outsider already now he wasn’t sure if he was doing anything right. He was almost ready to walk back to his room when he heard Max’s voice. 

“Hey Leclerc”, Charles turned to look at Max. Max was smiling to him a bit offering the controller. “Come beat Pierre in this. He is too good and getting smug.”

Pierre turned to look at where Max was looking to right away. He gave Charles the biggest smile and Charles couldn’t do anything but take the controller from Max and sit next to Pierre. He gave Pierre a smile before starting to look for AS Monaco. 

Thank you, Pierre mouthed to Max with a smile before starting to banter with Charles about their choice of teams. Max smiled at his friend before just slumping down more on the sofa pulling Lando to a more comfortable position. Lando smiled feeling like his heart would burst out of his chest when Max moved his fingers to play with his hair. 

Lando looked at everyone on the sofa before just smiling and closing his eyes. Everything felt pretty good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading :3 I can't believe this fic has over 1k hits. Seeing the support is so amazing and I am grateful for all you readers! I hope you are gonna like what is coming x
> 
> Next two chapters will probably be bit shorter ones. I will post chapter 5 on next tuesday! 
> 
> My tumblr : [maxynorris](https://maxynorris.tumblr.com/)


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lando and George have feelings hours. Alex and Charles help each other more than they know. Pierre has some hard facts for Max

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I bring you this slightly shorter chapter today (well is like 2.3k words so... is long sitll). This is bit of a fillery chapter for what is coming and I hope you like it! 
> 
> Also I feel like I already need to say that it pains me to write Daniel as a bad guy please don't kill me for what I am going to do with him in the following chapters 

“So what is up with you and Alex?” Lando asked from George as he sat on the other boy’s bed. He was scrolling through some article on his laptop while George sat by the desk reading history homework. “Why isn’t he here now?” 

“He decided to ask Pierre for help with French”, George shrugged like it was nothing just staring at the book. “Everything is okay with us”

“Is this still about you two cuddeling after the party?” Lando asked closing his laptop turning to look at George. “George he said he was fine with it. Stop being so freaking awkward around him.”

George gazed to Lando with a frown. It has been a few weeks since the party and as much as George wished he could say that his and Alex’s friendship was the same it had been before, that was a lie. Yes they spent most of the time still together but there was a difference. There was a small space between them and there were more quiet moments. 

They hadn’t talked about the night at all. George knew that was his wish but right now it was just clawing insides of him. Even if Alex said that he was okay with what happened George still felt unsure. Especially because he hadn’t felt so strongly about Alex than he was now. Not being close to him was making insane and his crush was strong. 

“I know I am just overthinking it but”, George sighed turning on his chair to look at Lando. “I just don’t want to lose him but I also like him so freaking much. But Alex is straight and I don’t want to make him uncomfortable. He wouldn’t want to be my friend if he knew how good the cuddling had felt like.”

“First of all we don’t know if Alex is straight”, Lando noted to George. “Second he looks miserable without you just like you look miserable without him. Can’t you just talk it out?”

George pouted stubbornly to Lando. Lando was right yes but what about if everything would get even worse. At least he still had Alex now even if it was awkward. That was better than having no Alex anymore.

“Third he cuddled you too”, Lando continued still looking at George. “He wouldn’t have stayed to sleep with you and cuddle you if he didn’t like that.”

“Or he is just touch starved like everyone here and cuddled because of that”, George shrugged a little. “Maybe it wasn’t anything.”

Lando sighed a little not wanting to continue and annoy George more. He stopped but also stopped to think about George’s words. Maybe everyone was just touch starved… Hugs and cuddling did feel good, Lando thought flashing back to how many times he just kind of sat next to Max way too close but Max’s reaction was always to put an arm around him. They still played on switch every night Lando in Max’s lap but now even when hanging in the common room sometimes Max always pulled him to sit close to him. 

“So what about you and Max?” George asked like he had just read Lando’s mind. Lando felt his cheeks blush right and George laughed a little. “You didn’t think I haven’t noticed the way you look at him and how close you two are?”

“I… there is nothing”, Lando shrugged a little but when George raised his brow at him he sighed and continued. “Okay I like him but I don’t know if he likes me. I doubt it… It’s just like you just said: everyone is just touch starved.”

“I watched Max interact with other people for a year and the only one he ever wanted close to him was Pierre”, George told him. “But what you guys do is so far from that. He seems to be comfortable with you.”

“So you think he might like me?” Lando asked carefully really not wanting to get his hopes up but if George thought this was special it could mean more. At least he knew Max was gay. 

“I think there is a chance”, George smiled to Lando softly. “But… Lando be careful with him okay? I don’t think he means harm but he can be a bit… selfish and inconsiderable about other people’s feelings sometimes… don’t let him play you.”

Lando looked at George for a moment. He definitely wouldn’t say Max was selfish or inconsiderable. Max was sweet and caring. He was fun to be around. But at the same time he heard the warnings from his friends and he is not sure what to think about anymore. And there was a question of what Max was hiding in his phone. He was quick to put it away whenever Lando came close. Maybe he had some other boy there, Lando thought.

“I promise George”, Lando told his friend as he opened his laptop again. “I’ll be careful.”

#

“Hey Pierre”, Pierre turned around in the hallway when he heard someone call for him. Alex walked to him with a soft smile. He was pretty sure he had never actually talked one on one with the boy but he seemed sweet. “You busy now?”

“Not really I guess”, Pierre said with a smile leaning to the wall. “What’s up?”

“This is maybe a bit weird but you speak fluent French right?” Alex asked carefully from Pierre. Pierre nodded right away. “I really need some help with my homework and just… I’m really bad and I really need help.”

Pierre was about to agree to help right away but managed to stop before opening his mouth. Yeah he could help easily, but there was also someone else who could help Alex. Someone that could really feel good about helping. 

“I think you should ask Charles”, Pierre told Alex. Alex looked a bit unsure. “It’s not that I don’t want to help you is just that… I already tutor Max with some stuff and honestly Charles would probably really like helping you.”

“You sure that Charles would want to help me?” Alex asked just to be sure. He hadn’t really seen the Monegasque around this year. “He has been kinda off.”

“Yeah I am sure please Alex”, Pierre said right away. “I think he would really like it and need it. If he says no then I promise I will help. Just don’t tell him that I told you to go to him please.”

Alex looked at Pierre for a moment before agreeing and heading towards Pierre and Charles’ room. Pierre smiled really hoping Charles would agree to help. He knew Charles was really trying to be around more people. He came to the common room and stayed next to Pierre the whole time but Pierre wasn’t sure the other boy was enjoying it. Maybe Alex really saying he needed Charles would do the trick. 

Alex knocked on the room door carefully and waited for Charles to answer before opening the door. He knew Charles a bit hanging with George and the football team. He knew Charles was a fun guy and dear god he needed the help. Charles was sitting by his desk and smiled a bit confused at Alex. 

”Hey I was wondering if you would like to help me with French?” Alex asked carefully slipping to the room. ”Please you are the best and I am desperate.”

”You want my help?” Charles asked bit confused. It felt more like a prank. ”Are you sure? Pierre might be better… but I guess if you want me to help I can… You wanna start right away?”

Alex nodded right away moving to sit next to Charles. Charles just looked at Alex take books out and smiled a little. He knew he was taking distance from people and therefore people also took distance from him but Alex asking for help felt… good. Like he wasn’t fully forgotten even if he was having a bad time now. 

”Why isn’t George helping you?” Charles asked after a moment of going through Alex’s notes. Alex froze to the mention of George’s name. “I mean I am happy to help but don’t you guys do everything together. Something wrong with you two?”

“Everything is fine”, Alex said quickly just staring at his book. “You are just better in French than him so I wanted your help.”

Charles raised brow at Alex not really believing him. Alex felt his cheeks blush as Charles looked at him. Or because my feelings are an absolute mess after the drunken night. He had tried to figure out what all his feelings and thoughts meant. Usually when his mind was this messed up with thoughts he would talk George about it. Now though he was stuck alone with his thoughts. 

An hour later they had revised all of Alex’s notes. Alex felt like he had actually understood a lot of things. Being with Charles had been easy and he felt the other boy relax with him too. That got him thinking that maybe he could ask for a bit more help.

“Thank you so much for all of this”, Alex smiled to Charles as he started gathering all of his notes. “I will be coming for help if I need it again! Or… actually can I ask you something?”

“You are welcome and sure”, Charles smiled to Alex softly but tensed a bit. Is he going to ask me why I am so different, Charles thought right but the question was completely different. 

“I just… how did you know you are gay?” Alex asked looking away from Charles cheeks blushed deeply. “I just… remember you saying last year you are gay and… how does one know when they are gay?”

“Oh”, Charles said before chuckling a little. Thank god, he thought before answering. “I think that if you have to think if you are gay or not, you are probably not that straight… other than the obvious answer of liking boys.”

“Right”, Alex hummed a bit before quickly standing up. “Thanks for that… for everything.”

Charles looked to Alex curious but just nodded to him. Alex walked to the door but stopped before leaving. He turned to look at Charles with a soft smile. 

“You know we all miss you”, Alex told Charles softly. “Playing ps with us and all… I mean… No pressure of coming back or anything just… know that we miss you and you are welcomed to come back anytime.”

Charles felt his cheeks blush a bit. He nodded to Alex simply before turning back to his desk. He listened to Alex leave the room before sighing deeply. To be honest hearing that felt pretty good. Just like helping Alex had also felt really good. Charles took a deep breath and gazed up to the sky from the window. 

Baby steps, he thought. 

#

Max and Daniel had fallen to the habit of messaging each other a few times a week. Or more like Daniel had fallen to the habit of sending Max messages and then the next morning sending a message again telling him that he didn’t mean anything he had said. That he didn’t actually find Max attractive. That Max definitely wasn't a temptation. That if even if Max wasn’t a student he wouldn’t want him. 

The messages in the morning felt like a slap to a face even when Max was getting used to it. He didn’t even get excited about seeing Daniel’s message pop up on his phone during the late night. What made it worse that Daniel couldn’t even look at Max during lessons anymore and he avoided the boy the best he was able. But at the same time Max still went along with the messages because… he wasn’t sure about that. 

“This is disgusting”, Pierre told Max while scrolling through the instagram messages between Max and Daniel. Max was sitting next to him looking at the phone too. “Max why do you keep answering him?”

“There isn’t much to do around here”, Max shrugged. It was just two of them in Max and Lando’s room. Pierre glared at him. “What? It’s nice to feel wanted! And he definitely wants me. I’m not the first one to send a message, I just answer.”

“And you should stop doing that”, Pierre growled and gave the phone back to Max. “Do you even like him?”

Max shrugged a little to that. He really wasn’t that sure anymore about it. Yeah Daniel was really hot and he still found the teacher interesting but at the same time he was getting really tired of nothing actually happening. And then there was Lando.

When he was with Lando he didn’t even look at Daniel’s messages. They were the furthest thing from his mind at that point. Lando was the sweetest person he had possible ever met and he enjoyed spending time with Lando. He couldn’t ignore how good it felt to have Lando in his arms. 

“Max the fact is that he is 25 years old”, Pierre sighed. “He is our teacher. He should in no way be even interested in you. He is playing a dangerous and stupid game. If you two would even end up together it would be a cheap fuck and he would run again. He is bad for you!”

“Sounds like my type to be honest”, Max smirked a little to Pierre. Pierre rolled his eyes while Max laughed. “Come on that was funny!” 

“Sounds more like your daddy issues.” 

Max bursted out laughing at that so badly even Pierre started laughing. This is why you are my best friend, Max thought and just pulled Pierre to a side hug. Pierre smiled letting Max hug him. 

“I promise I will stop it”, Max told Pierre. Pierre turned to look at him with a smile. “I will talk to him one on one and make this end. This game is getting boring anyway. If he finally tells me no, I will stop.”

As soon as I am able to get him to look at me in real life, Max thought but Pierre’s smile made him feel like this was the right decision. And maybe if he got rid of Daniel he could finally figure out the Lando side… if I get rid of Daniel, he thought. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading again and for all the comments and kudos this fic has got :3 next chapter will be posted on Saturday
> 
> I know Piarles is very angsty (atm) in this fic so if you want fluffy happy piarles, I have been writing a tattoo artist!Charles/f1driver!Pierre au (while I should have written this) you can read it [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28529871/chapters/69910680) :3
> 
> My tumblr : [maxynorris](https://maxynorris.tumblr.com/)


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lando finds out Max's secret. George and Alex continue being dumb with their emotions. Max and Dan have a talk. Horner has news for the boys. Pierre and Charles share a moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy this chapter :) it’s another kinda fillery one that helps with what is coming bc oh boi big stuff is coming

Lando wouldn’t say he was a jealous person at all. He was calm and content… at least he used to be before Max. 

Talking with George had messed with this head even more. Even though he really didn’t want to get his hopes up but George’s words had given him too much hope. After all George had told him that Max had never been with anyone else like he was with him. That couldn’t just be an accident. 

So now Lando stayed close to Max even more looking for his touch whenever possible not even caring about other people seeing them anymore. He liked Max too much to not do anything about his feelings. And he was becoming more sure about the fact that it was possible Max liked him too. It wasn’t like Max ever pushed him away or didn’t give him attention. 

The only thing bothering Lando was Max’s phone. Max was quick to hide it whenever anyone was close and always put it far away when for example they were playing together. Sometimes when Lando woke around one or two in the morning, Max was still on his phone messaging someone. What about if Max had some boy in there? 

Lando wasn't a jealous person. He was just curious. 

So when the opportunity came he took it. Lando came back from getting some late night snacks. First thing he noticed when coming to the room was Max’s phone on the boy’s nightstand. He could hear Max in the shower. While he tried to ignore the phone as soon as the screen lit up with a new message, he grabbed it. 

_ ‘message from daniel ricciardo’ _

Lando’s mouth fell open when he saw the instagram notification. Max was messaging their teacher? This was what he was hiding? Lando felt a bit ill and put the phone back to its place right away. The screen lit up again with the same notification. Oh god, Lando thought his feelings and thoughts even more of a mess than before. 

“You look like you have seen a ghost”, Max’s voice got him back to the real world. Max was standing by his bed hair wet and in sweats looking at Lando with an amused look on his face. “What’s up?”

“Nothing”, Lando said quickly trying to act like everything was okay. He smiled to Max quickly. “Everything fine just bit tired.”

“Okay?” Max said bit confused while sitting on his own bed. He smiled at Lando. “Too tired to play a bit?” 

Lando shook his head right away and took the switch. He gazed to Max a bit looking at the other boy check the lockscreen of his phone before quickly slipping it under his pillow. Maybe it was nothing, Lando thought as he got the game on. Maybe I am overreacting. 

Yeah it was nothing, Lando decided as Max pulled to sit on his lap by his waist. Lando smiled leaning his back against Max’s chest. It was nothing, he told himself again. 

#

“Fuck”, George yelped surprised when he opened door to his room after practise. Alex was laying on his bed like it was totally normal. He turned to look at George a bit and smiled nervously. “What are you doing here Alex?”

“I… I had a really shitty day”, Alex sighed sitting up a bit. He avoided George’s gaze. “I got a really bad score from the math quiz and just feel stuck with my essay so… I know you have been busy lately but can we just lay down for a moment together? I really need it.”

Alex looked down to his lap cheeks red. It pained him to be there but being alone would be even worse. He just needed his best friend right now. His feelings were still a mess and it was starting to affect everything. But with George he knew he would get at least a moment of peace.

George looked to Alex dropping his bag to the floor by the door. He definitely hadn’t been busy unless you count just moping around being something important. He missed Alex more than anything but he had thought Alex wanted some distance. Now he wasn’t sure what to think. Other than he really just wanted to lay down with Alex for a moment. 

“It’s okay if you don’t want to, I get it”, Alex said still looking away starting to get up from the bed. “ I will just go to my room… sorry for co-”

“Shut up”, George stopped Alex pushing him back to the bed. Alex looked up to George who just smiled. “It’s fine. We can lay for a moment… it’s been a while since last time anyway.”

Alex smiled right away laying down on the bed making room for George. George gave him a smile and just laid down next Alex like they had done so many times before. Their arms were touching each other. Only sound in the whole room was just the two boys breathing. For a moment it felt like everything was normal. Everything was back to the way it had been.

Alex sifted a little to a better position. His fingers touched George’s hand and he stopped just for a moment. Just do it, he told himself before he slipped his fingers between George’s. George let out a breath but only squeezed Alex’s hand softly. George closed his eyes just wanting to enjoy the moment. 

“George?” Alex whispered to the quietness. 

“Yeah?” George hummed just keeping his eyes closed. 

I think I really like you. You are cute and sweet and I really really like you. 

“Nothing”, Alex whispered not brave enough to say his thoughts out loud. George opened his eyes and gazed to Alex a bit. Alex gave him a small smile. “Just that… this feels good.”

“Yeah it does”, George smiled back to Alex before turning his gaze to the ceiling again and closing his eyes. 

He hoped Alex wouldn’t hear how fast his heart was beating.

#

Max was staring at Daniel as the lesson went on. The teacher was still doing his everything to ignore Max and act like he wasn’t even in the class. Max knew he had to act quick if he wanted to finally talk things out with Daniel. The teacher had a habit of disappearing around Max. 

“We need to talk”, Max walked over to Daniel’s table as soon as the bell rang and students started to gather their stuff. He kept his voice low not to drawn too much attention from the other students. “We gonna clear this thing up.”

“Actually I am quite bus-”, Daniel said looking away from Max starting to gather his own stuff. 

“Bullshit”, Max said staring at Daniel. He wouldn’t give up. Daniel gazed up to Max a bit. “We do this now.”

Daniel looked at Max taking a deep breath before nodding to the boy. He leaned against his chair looking as the students left the classroom. He felt his heart start to pick up pace. He had done his everything to avoid this situation but he knew it had been just a matter of time before this would happen. He had just hoped he would have been able to get the boy out of his mind before this. 

Max smiled satisfied and just leaned to one of the front row desks. He waited for the rest of the students to leave the classroom. Pierre locked eyes with Max for a moment. Max gave him a simple nod. Yes I will do this now, Max thought. He waited till the door closed after the last student. 

“Okay what the hell is your game?” Max asked from Daniel crossing his arms over his chest. Daniel moved his gaze to his desk. “Why the fuck do you send me messages every night and then ignore me like this? What do you want from me?”

“Nothing”, Daniel said simply not daring to look at Max. Max tilted his head a little to the side. “I don’t want anything from you or you for that matter. I think I have made that very clear with my morning messages.”

“Yeah with your morning messages but somehow you are lusting after me in the night ones”, Max raised his brow huffing. Daniel felt his cheeks blush. “So which one is it now? Do you want me? Or not? Because all you have to tell me was clear no at the start and we wouldn’t be here now. You can still just say simple no to me and this ends.”

Daniel took a deep breath and lifted his gaze to look at Max to his eyes. Just tell him no, Daniel told himself. His heart might be screaming for something else but he still knew that saying no would be the right decision. It would have been the right decision already in the spring. 

“No, Max”, Daniel said trying to keep his voice as steady as possible. “My answer is no.”

It still felt like a stab and Max dropped his gaze to the floor. There it was then, he thought and nodded as he stood up again. Max grabbed his bag heading towards the door of the classroom. Simple no. 

“Max?” Max turned around to look at Daniel. Daniel stood up from his chair just looking at Max. “I think it would be best if you deleted all the messages from our instagram dms. Please. And of course keep this as a secret.”

Max looked to Daniel for a moment before leaving the classroom without saying another word. Daniel sighed deeply and sat down back to his chair. He ran his hand through his hair. If his feelings would have got to decide he would have never said no. Now he just needed to not let any control to his feelings. 

#

Ten minute later Max walked to the seminar room of the school still going through the conversation with Daniel. The headmaster had called the students in for a meeting. The room had chairs in front of a little stage that Horner was already waiting for students. Max spotted Pierre slipping to sit next to him right away just slumping on the chair. Pierre stopped talking with Alex for a moment and turned to look at Max a worried look on his face. 

“It’s over”, Max whispered to Pierre just looking forward. “He said no.”

“That’s the right thing”, Pierre whispered back and took Max’s hand squeezing it as support. “You did good.”

Max shrugged just staring forward. Yeah it was the right thing but why did it still hurt, he thought. This is what he expected anyway. And it was good. Now he could forget about Daniel once and for all. He was done… The rejection still hurt. 

Pierre looked at his friend for a moment before he turned back to talking with Alex. He let Max keep holding his hand. Max looked to their hands just playing with Pierre’s fingers as a way to keep himself calm as they waited for Horner to start. 

“Hello students”, Horner started with a smile. “Everyone but first year students probably already know why we are here. We are having a debutante ball with our sister school in two weeks. It is an important night for the two schools. Everyone - your parents, us teachers, people financing this school, important people - will be here and I expect all of you to be on your best behaviour.”

There was a bit of groaning from the crowd. First year students were looking around confused while older students just sighed and rolled their eyes. The dedubant ball was a tradition of posh high society that the students really didn’t really care for but it would make their parents proud. Sometimes it felt like the whole the thing was for their parents more than the students.

”We will pair every one of you with a girl from sister school and they will come over for a few practices”, Horner continued ignoring the groans. ”You will all behave like perfect gentlemen through the ball. This might just be the most important night of your life yet. You can make good connections..”

Horner continued talking about how important this all was but most of the students weren’t listening. Not this bullshit again, Max thought sighing while Lando a few rows forward was mostly just confused. Pierre smiled a bit just squeezing Max’s hand again but was looking at Charles who looked actually quite hopeful. He would see his mom again, he thought excited. Meanwhile Alex was staring at George explaining everything to Lando. George in a suit would be so handsome, he thought.

# 

Charles had been out on a walk around the school yard just talking with his mom on the phone. He thought the debudant ball was stupid but at least his mom wantes to come so he would see her. And he would get to wear his suit which he already knew made him look amazing.

But the night also made him a little nervous. It would be a lot of people and while he slowly started to be around more people, the ball just sounded exhausting and overwhelming. You will survive, Charles tried telling himself. It will be okay.

When he came back to the room after his walk Pierre was on his knees in front of the window while there was a candle on the window still. He had his hands crossed in his lap. Pierre turned his head when he heard door open and gave the other boy a soft smile.

”Sorry I can go away”, Charles said a bit embarrassed. 

”No no”, Pierre said right away softly. Charles smiled a little still unsure. ”I was just doing some praying… You wanna join? Not to pray if you don’t want but just to have a calm moment?”

Charles thought for a moment before nodding with a smile. Pierre smiled brightly before turning to the window again. Charles didn’t believe in god or care for religion. How could he when all some god wanted to do was take important people away from him? But still he got down next to Pierre and just took a deep breath looking to the sky. 

Pierre gazed to Charles with a smile quickly before focusing on his thoughts again. He closed his eyes tightly. He usually did this few times a week and while he didn’t think Charles would have a problem with it but he rather have these moments for himself. But to be honest having Charles next to him now felt really good.

”Where were you?” Pierre asked softly after finishing with praying. He let his hands free but stayed on the floor. He smiled at Charles. 

”A walk and called mom”, Charles smiled softly. ”She is coming to the ball. Apparently she is coming for some shopping trip to London so she can also come here.”

”Ooh nice”, Pierre smiled softly. ”My parents are coming too I think.” 

Charles smiled at Pierre before looking at the candle. He could get used to these small peaceful moments. He could get used to being next to Pierre. 

”Pierre?” he asked carefully. Pierre hummed a bit. ”I know we go to the ball with the girls but… I was just wondering if you kinda want to be my date… not actual date but I just think… being close to you would be nice… if you want.”

”I would love to be your date Charles.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading :3 the support this fic has still has me shook! The comments and kudos warm my heart <3
> 
> My uni continues on Monday but I trust (hope) that I am able to update this like I have now. Next chapter will be up on Thursday :) it's the first of the ball chapters 
> 
> My tumblr : [maxynorris](https://maxynorris.tumblr.com/)


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time for the debutante ball
> 
> alternative summary: Pierre and Charles have finally good time while everyone else is suffering

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again I would like apology for making Daniel so awful. I needed a villain. This just happened. Don't kill me
> 
> This chapter gets bit heavy in the end. There is a trigger warning for one paragraph (non-con kiss) at the end of this chapter

’You better behave today. Do not embarrass our family!’

Max rolled his eyes at his father’s message. I would never do that, Max replied in his mind but just threw the phone away before checking himself in the mirror. He didn’t want this night but at least he looked handsome. 

”Max help me with this”, Lando came out of the bathroom with a pout on his face and tie in his hand. He pushed it to Max. ”I don’t know how to tie this.”

”Adorable”, Max chuckled but took the tie wrapping it around Lando’s collar. Lando blushed deeply as Max stepped closer making the knot. ”You look very handsome.”

Lando swore he must be as red as a tomato at this point. Max was only inches away from him and his eyes fell on his lips. He was so gone for Max at this point. While he had tried to calm down after seeing the message notification, suddenly Max had stopped being on his phone and Lando was filled with hope again. Maybe the message really was nothing like he had hoped.

”There you go”, Max smiled to Lando finishing the tie making sure it was on well. His fingers touched on Lando’s neck softly letting his fingers play on Lando’s shirt collar before forcing himself to take a step back. ”It feels good?”

”Yes thanks”, Lando said with a shaky breath not daring to look at Max’s face. His heart would soon explode. ”You… you look amazing.”

”I know”, Max winked to Lando.

I am so gone, Lando thought.

# 

The actual official and formal part of the debutante ball was boring. Every pair came out to the ballroom with an official introduction. When everyone was introduced there was some formal dancing while parents looked at their children proudly. After all of that the night turned to a big socialising and networking night for both students and parents. 

Pierre thought the night didn’t definitely deserve all the hype around it but it was fine. At least one less night spent playing or studying. His date had been a nice pretty girl but as soon as the official part was over he was by Charles’ side like he had promised his roommate. He rather spent it with him anyway. 

The ballroom was decorated beautifully in white roses and lights. Everyone was dressed in fancy suits and dresses. But if you asked Pierre, Charles was obviously the most beautiful person in the whole room. Charles’ suit fit him perfectly and he looked almost like an angel. Pierre caught himself just getting stuck staring at Charles from time to time. 

“Wanna search for our parents?” Charles asked from Pierre as soon as he found him after the dances ended. Pierre nodded right away and Charles started pulling him with him. “So glad the dancing is over.”

“You dance well what’s the problem?” Pierre chuckled as they walked looking around the place. “You have at least rhythm in your body.”

“Charlotte, my pair, was too excited about me”, Charles made a face to Pierre. “She asked me if I was single and wanted to run away from this ball. Can you believe that?”

“Well you are the most beautiful here so yeah”, Pierre said simple before realising. Charles turned to look at Pierre but just gave him a simple smile and a wink. Pierre wished the ground would swallow him at that point. 

For their surprise they ended up finding Pierre’s parents talking with Charles’ mom. It seemed like they knew each other from a long time ago but had never just got their kids to meet. Charles and Pierre stood there just stunned gazing at each other.

“So you are telling me that we could have been friends since being kids?” Pierre asked after processing everything. “But instead we met first time last year… the hell?”

“Pierre your language”, Pierre’s mother said softly to her son. “Let’s just be happy you guys have found each other now and are such good friends! Let’s enjoy that.” 

They continued chatting for a while with all as a group before Charles’ mother pulled him away to talk in peace. Pierre kept his gaze still almost the whole time in Charles. It had been such a long time he had seen Charles’ smile so bright as it was with his mother. The fact that there were so many people around them was long forgotten and Charles looked truly happy. That made Pierre feel good. 

When the pair came back Charles’ mother stopped by Pierre’s side quickly pulling him a bit to her side to talk with him. Pierre felt his heart almost stop at that but when Charles just smiled simply he felt better right away. 

“I just wanted to tell you that I am so thankful for everything you have done for my son”, Pascale smiled softly to Pierre. “Charles has told me how much you are trying to help him and support him. And on top of that all of that is working. I feel like I am getting my son back.”

“Oh I…”, Pierre said blushed taken back by the sweet word. “I’m just… I wanna help and I am glad that he takes my help… he is my good friend so of course I help.”

“You are an angel Pierre”, Pascale smiled softly. Pierre smiled at her but gazed to Charles a bit. Charles was looking straight to him and gave him a smile when their gazes met. Pretty sure your son is the angel, Pierre thought. 

Charles was surprised by how good the night was going. Sure there were lot of people and the dancing had been just stupid but he was able to stay calm and nothing was too overwhelming. He knew the exact reason why he was feeling so good and he was looking straight at that reason. He definitely wouldn’t survive without Pierre. He was slowly but surely feeling more like his old self. 

When Pierre and his mother came back, their mothers left quickly to use the bathroom while Pierre’s father saw some of his business partners. The boys were left just two of them leaning against the wall side by side looking at the the party people. 

“So how embarrassing was my mom while she talked with you?” Charles asked softly from Pierre. Pierre turned to look at him. “She didn’t go on and on about how handsome she thinks you are right? Because she kept telling me that.” 

“Oh”, Pierre swore the blush would never leave his cheeks. Charles grinned a bit. “Nah she just wanted to thank me for helping you and all that… Which I am more than happy to do.”

“Aww”, Charles smiled and looked at Pierre. “I feel like I should also say thank you for all of that but it will never do enough justice for all the things you have done for me.”

“Stop it”, Pierre chuckled a little. “Like I said I’m happy to do it. I’m just glad we are friends.”

“Me too… Maybe is good that we only met now. We were meant to found each other like this.”

“So it’s destiny?”

“Yeah you are my destiny.”

Pierre gazed to Charles with a smile. The other boy was looking to him with a smile before focusing on looking at other people again. Pierre turned his gaze to look around aswell but moved just a bit closer to Charles letting their fingers touch. Charles looked down to their hands for a moment before linking their pinkies together. 

#

George was pissed. To be honest saying he was pissed was an understatement. He was absolutely furious. First of all, he found the whole idea of the dance ridiculous and way too old-school. Second, most of the students were at least somewhat excited because they got to see their parents but George’s parents hadn’t bothered to show up. They still did when Lewis went to this stupid school, George thought. Third, it seemed like Alex was having the time of his life with his pair and it just made him feel jealous. Fourth and most importantly, Lewis was there. 

Why was Lewis there? George assumed to piss him off. In reality it was quite common for old students to also come to the ball to network but that still didn’t make it okay in George’s mind. How could he ever get rid of Lewis’ shadow if Lewis would never leave his life. Fuck this, George thought just staring at Lewis before walking straight towards him.

”What the hell are you doing here?” George groaned at Lewis not caring he interrupted Lewis’ talk with some random men George didn’t recognize. ”Why are you here?”

”George I’m kind of in the middle of something here”, Lewis looked at his little brother stunned. He gave a quick apologetic smile to the men. ”Sorry this is my little brother George who I will talk to  **later** .”

”Nope we will talk right now”, George said strongly just staring at Lewis with fire in his eyes. ”Now answer me wh-”

”Excuse me gentlemen”, Lewis smiled to the two men grabbing George’s arm tightly. George huffed but Lewis’ glare at him shushed him. He gazed to the men quickly again. ”Looks like I need to deal with this now. Sorry.”

Lewis started pulling George with him just tightening the hold on George’s arm. George huffed but let Lewis pull him to the hallway out of the ballroom quickly. Lewis didn’t say anything till he was far enough away from the doors. He threw George away from him angry. 

”What the hell is wrong with you?” Lewis asked through his teeth very angry. He crossed his arms over his chest looking at his little brother. ”Those two men are one part of the best law offices. You are ruining my future career!” 

“Fuck your stupid career”, George told Lewis strongly. No reason to stop anymore, he thought. “If you care about your career why are you not in your fancy law school now getting the best grades and being the perfect son? Why are you here ruining my life? This is my school now! Not yours! You don’t belong here anymore!”

“I am here because I got invited and because there are important people to meet”, Lewis rolled his eyes at George. He didn’t have time for this. “George we can talk about this later but I am now going back. You calm down here from your childish explosion.”

“Childish explosion?” George said raising his voice even more. He didn’t even care anymore if someone would hear them. “Oh fuck you Lewis you think you are so much better than me! I fucking hate you. Don’t you dare to go back there or I will actually fight you. I am done with being in your shadow all my life!”

Lewis looked at George before just huffing and rolling his eyes. He definitely had better stuff to do, he thought turning his back at George starting to walk back to the ballroom. George just saw red at that point taking steps to Lewis. He managed to push Lewis before arms wrapped around him pulling him back. 

“George stop it!” Alex told his friend strongly pushing him away from Lewis stepping between the brothers. Lewis turned back to look at George now, actually shocked of what was happening. Alex held George’s arm still tightly. “He is not worth it.”

Alex had been keeping his eyes on George through the night even though he spent it with his pair Lily. They were both terrible at the dances and had bonded over it during the practises. She was fun to be around yes, but still he gazed at his best friend. When he had seen the brothers leave the room he had quickly followed them to see the explosion. 

“Okay George what the hell is this?” Lewis said strongly looking at his brother. “Now you are violent suddenly? Probably thanks to that stupid football hobby of yours. You are just jealous that I am in a top university when you won’t get to any.”

Alex caught George to his arms again quickly when George tried hitting his brother. This time Lewis actually took a step back bit nervous that Alex wouldn’t be able to hold George still. George took deep breaths still staring at his brother angry. 

“George please stop this”, Alex told him softly trying to smile at him. George gazed to his face. “This is not worth it.”

“You are right”, George said before pushing Alex off him. Alex was a bit taken back by the push just looking at George. “Nothing is worth this. Just fuck you Lewis. I absolutely hate being your brother. Oh and fuck you too Alex. Why do you care now when you haven’t for a month? Just fuck both of you!” 

And with that George left the two boys in the hallway as he headed to his room. He was done with this night. Alex looked George go stunned before turning to look at Lewis who was looking at him with the exact same look on his face. What did just happen?

# 

Max was leaning against the wall of the ballroom absolutely bored out of his mind. The official part went fine. He did the mandatory chatting with his father’s business partners - since no one from his family showed up- . He already said hey with Pierre’s parents. He had done all that was important to do so now he was just standing there. 

What he really wanted to do was just pull Lando with him to their room and have game night together but Lando was busy with his parents. And that was fine. The happiness Max saw from Lando when he was around his parents was so pure Max would never want to break that. Lando had even drag him to meet his mom and dad. Max thought they were both lovely people who clearly loved Lando a lot. But he didn’t want to feel like a bother and tag along to their family time. 

Max let his gaze go around the place. He stopped when his gaze with Daniel’s. The teacher was looking straight at him and it wasn’t the first time of the night Max felt his gaze on him. After their talk Daniel was able to look at Max again but Max had decided it was his time to ignore the teacher. All the messages between them were deleted and he had even blocked Daniel. There was nothing between them anymore. 

But Daniel was looking straight to him with a drink in his hand. Daniel’s gaze looked Max from his head to toes and back before nodding his head towards door of the room. Max’s raised a brow at him but Daniel just walked towards the open doors. He showed Max to follow him before heading to the hallway. 

Max looked around quickly. Lando was still fully focused on his parents and Pierre seemed to be talking with Charles. Well it’s not like I have anything else to do, Max thought and followed Daniel’s lead. This is so stupid, he thought aswell but ignored that for now. Dan clearly wanted to talk so why not talk. 

Max got to the hallway just as he saw Daniel open door to a classroom quickly slipping to it. Max slipped his hands to his pans pockets as he walked to the classroom after his teacher. He stopped to look around the hallway to make sure no one saw him before slipping in. 

“What do you want?” Max asked right away from Daniel as he closed the door after him. Daniel was standing only about two meters from him but when he saw Daniel closer Max realised what was going on. “You got drunk at your work place… a new low I guess.”

“Technically not at work but at a ball”, Daniel noted looking straight to Max. “You look amazing Max.”

“Yeah I have heard that before”, Max shrugged but had to admit to himself it felt good to hear. Daniel took a step closer to him his gaze lowering to Max’s lips. Max swallowed hard. This is so stupid. “If that was all I am gonna go.”

“I want you.”

**(tw next paragraph description of non-con kiss)**

Daniel pushed Max against the wall before the boy had a chance to react. Daniel crashed their lips together to a messy kiss as he held Max’s arms tightly. Max froze for only second or two but it felt like an eternity before he realised what was happening and how much he didn’t want this. Max tried squirming away from Daniel’s hold to turn his head away but Daniel was surprisingly strong just pushing the younger boy more against the wall as Max whined no. 

When Daniel finally pulled away to take a breath, Max was able to take the opportunity. He managed to twist his arm enough to give more space between them and kick Daniel to his stomach. Daniel fell to the ground with a groan. Max grabbed the door handle right away. 

“Don’t you fucking dare to touch me again”, Max said strongly still breathing heavy before leaving the classroom. 

Max started running as soon as he was in the hallway. He didn’t care if anyone saw him. He ran till he finally got to his room. He felt his whole life wash over him as he broke down crying on the floor. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! If you have any thoughts feel free to tell me :3
> 
> About the ending... It's gonna be bit heavy for few chapters on Max's part but don't worry he has support and there will be fluffy parts and honestly I was brainstorming ideas and there is very cute and funny stuff coming... Next chapter coming on Monday!
> 
> My tumblr : [maxynorris](https://maxynorris.tumblr.com/)


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lando's turn to comfort Max. Pierre is frustrated. Alex and George make progress. Daniel just got even worse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy! 
> 
> ps. sorry about Daniel again. I just needed someone to be really awful

Lando had been very unsure about how the whole debutante ball even worked and if it would be fun. But it turned out it was actually a good time. He was absolutely terrible at dancing and he did step on his pair’s toes a couple of times but as soon as that was done the night had been great. He got to see his parents again and while he had got over the worst homesickness, it felt really good to see them. There were only a few things that would beat how good a hug from his mom felt. 

What he was maybe most excited about was dragging Max to meet his parents. He had talked about Max so much his mother insisted on meeting his roommate. Though the meeting had possibly only made his mom more excited about Max. But at the same time Max seemed to like to talk to his parents. Lando swore he was blushed red the whole time. 

He came back from saying goodbye to his parents to the ballroom. There was still quite many people in there, most of the students hanging. Lando started looking around for Max right away. He had seen the boy just standing around at some point. He thought maybe they could just disappear together to their room to play. He didn’t find Max anywhere but found Pierre and Charles. 

“Pierre”, Lando smiled at the guy. Pierre spent some time in their room with Max and he really liked the boy. “Do you know where Max is? Have you seen him anywhere?”

“Max?” Pierre asked before looking around bit. “I haven’t seen him in awhile… I don’t think he would leave without saying anything… wait is Mr Ricciardo still around?”

Lando felt his mouth go dry as Pierre said the last sentence. Mr Ricciardo? Lando had tried to ignore what he found out so bad but if Pierre knew something too it couldn’t just be a mistake right? 

“I don’t think so”, Charles said from next to Pierre. He looked around as well. “At least he isn’t with the rest of the teachers. They are almost all together.”

Fuck Max, Pierre thought right away and groaned a little. He had been very proud of Max for getting rid off Daniel but at the same time he knew his best friend well enough to know it probably wasn’t the end of the story. Max had a habit of doing stupid mistakes or more like mistakes had a habit of finding Max. Especially on a night like this, Pierre thought sighing a bit. I should have looked after him. 

“Maybe he is just gone to your room without telling anyone”, Pierre told Lando with a tense smile quickly. No one needs to actually know about Daniel. “Sorry.”

Lando looked to Pierre for a moment before simply nodding. He gave the boys a smile before heading out of the room. So Max and Mr Ricciardo were an actual thing, he thought. Lando felt sick to his stomach as he made his way to their room. Sick and angry. 

Pierre looked at Lando go before sighing deeply and rubbing his face. He was glad both his parents and Charles’ mom had already left a moment ago. Right now he felt like exploding. He had no doubt in his mind Max was somewhere with Daniel. Gosh he hated his best friend. He hated him so much. 

“Pierre maybe we should head to sleep too?” Charles said softly placing his hand on Pierre’s arm. Pierre looked to Charles tiredly. “It’s not like there is anything to do in this ball anyway anymore. Let’s go.”

Pierre sighed but nodded to Charles. It was either sleep or trying to find Max and killing him. But he could always kill him the next day. Charles smiled to Pierre as they walked to their room their hands touching the whole time but neither brave enough to actually take each other’s hand. 

“So Max and Mr Ricciardo?” Charles asked after they were both sitting on their own beds after changing out of the suits to their pyjamas. Neither of them was actually that tired yet. Pierre gazed to Charles who just smiled. “Well it’s been kinda obvious there has been something between them.”

“I don’t know if they are actually somewhere now but I just have a feeling”, Pierre sighed leaning to the wall. “He stopped what ever it was that they had going on but… after a night like this I don’t really trust that… He is so fucking stupid and I should have looked after him better and not let this happen… If the worst really has happen.”

Charles looked at Pierre before sighing. After a bit over year of knowing Max the other boy definitely had a habit of getting in trouble and at the same time pulling Pierre in trouble with him. Which was totally unfair if you asked Charles. Pierre had the biggest and most caring heart and Max took advantage of that. 

“Pierre it’s not your job to babysit Max”, Charles told him with a firm but calm voice. Pierre looked at him. “He can do his mistakes alone and also pay for the consequences of those mistakes alone. It’s not fair that you have to look after your best friend all the time. He can take care of himself Pierre.”

What Charles said did have a bit of a point in it, Pierre thought. The distance he had been able to get from Max thanks to them not being roommates anymore had felt good. He wasn’t just Max’s best friend anymore but actually Pierre. But at the same time Pierre knew Max didn’t do any of it on purpose. Pierre didn’t either. It was just how they naturally worked. 

“Maybe”, Pierre sighed a little. “But he is my best friend. And I owe him a lot.”

“And he owes lot to you but I don’t really see him working on that”, Charles told Pierre right away. Pierre rubbed his face again just tiredly. Charles started feeling a bit bad for him. “Change topic? Wanna play cards few matches before sleeping? I’m not really that tired yet.”

Pierre gave Charles a grateful smile and a nod. Charles got up from his bed to grab the card dek before sitting next to Pierre starting to shuffle the card. He smiled to him softly. 

“Did you have a fun night?” Pierre asked softly from him. “You looked so happy with your mom. It was nice to see and you look good in your suit.”

“Yeah I did”, Charles smiled back at him. “It was nice to see her again. Thanks for being my support once again. You made the night great and you looked just as good honey.”

Charles said the last words with little smirk. Pierre felt his cheeks blush right away and he looked down. Yeah the old Charles is coming back, Charles thought smiling to himself. 

#

“So George has officially lost it now”, Lewis broke the silence between him and Alex after a moment. He gazed to Alex a bit shaking his head. “Well whatever, I was kinda busy anyway. Good to see you again Alex.”

Alex looked at Lewis start to walk away. He still wasn’t exactly sure what the hell had happened. His biggest question was why was George so mad at him. He understood the explosion on Lewis but him? Why the hell? Lewis was the problem here.

“Lewis”, Alex said bit stronger to make Lewis stop. It worked and the older boy turned to look at him with a confused look on his face. “How George said those things might be wrong but you do know that living as your little brother isn’t exactly easy right? He feels like he is suffocating behind your shadow that he is stuck in when it comes to the teacher in this place and… your parents.”

“What are you talking about?” Lewis asked confused really turning to look at Alex. “My shadow?”

“Oh come on Lewis you were the best in everything and everyone loves you”, Alex snorted at the guy. Maybe Lewis really was as oblivious as George always said. “George just wants to be his own person. Not your little brother… I just think you should know that.”

Alex left walking back to the ballroom. He would say goodbye to his pair and go find George after that. Maybe the avoiding each other and not being natural with each other had gone too far. Maybe it was time to just do the messy talking. Alex really didn’t want to lose his best friend. 

“Alex wait”, Lewis’ voice stopped Alex just as he was stepping the ballroom. “I didn’t ever think about that… I didn’t know being my little brother can be so… awful… But I’m glad you are George’s friend. You guys make a good pair.”

“I wouldn’t say it’s awful but”, Alex started trying to find the right words before just sighing. He looked to Lewis. “I just think George deserves the world and you kinda make it hard for him. That’s it.”

Lewis didn’t say anything else and Alex made his way to the ballroom quickly. He said goodbye to Lily quickly before heading to George’s room. He felt his heart race against his chest faster every step he took. He needed to know George was okay. 

He had finally came in terms with his feelings towards George and he could confidently say that he - if not loved him yet - liked him so much and much more than friends. He wanted to pull him close. He wanted to kiss him. He wanted to cuddle him. He knew all that now but it still freaked him out a bit and he had kept his distance. It was clearly a mistake. 

“George?” Alex knocked on the door carefully before opening it. He peaked in finding George laying on his bed as a little ball. George had tears on his cheeks but he had at least changed out of the suit. Alex took a step to the room. “George what happened there?”

“Nothing”, George said just staring forward not daring to look at Alex in case he finds himself angry. He felt so ashamed of himself. “I’m sorry. I went over the line.”

As soon as George had got to his room, he realised what he had done. The way he had shouted at Lewis. The way he was ready to fight him. The way Alex had to held him back and he even snapped at him. All George felt was pain and shame when he realised what he had just done. The emotions and frustration had just taken over. He had been sure Alex would never even want to talk to him after that. 

“Apology accepted”, Alex said walking fully in closing the door after him. He looked to George for a moment to decide what to do. “Make room for me on the bed. Let’s just sleep this night away.”

That made George turn his head and look at Alex finally. Alex gave him a soft smile before starting to get his suit off. This wasn’t the moment to tell about his feelings. Not when George was so heartbroken but he wouldn’t let George spent the night alone. And to be honest he didn’t himself want to spent the night alone. 

“You want a shirt to sleep in?” George asked voice a bit shaky as he sat up on the bed. Was this really happening, he thought as Alex nodded to him. 

George got up to go to his closet and threw a shirt for Alex before getting to the bed under the covers. Maybe Alex didn’t hate him after all, he thought. His heart was screaming for Alex when he looked at the other boy change to George’s shirt. It looked nice on him, he thought. 

Alex slipped to the bed. This time he didn’t leave any space between them but wrapped his arms around George right away pulling the other boy close. George didn’t seem to mind as he pressed himself against the other boy right away. 

“You okay with this?” George whispered after a moment of just silence both of the boys listening to their breathing. “Honestly.”

“More than okay”, Alex whispered back closing his eyes. “Always was.”

George was thankful the lights were turned off and Alex couldn’t see the big smile on his face. It was late. His explosion still haunting him. There was no room for big love declarations so George only leaned to press a kiss to Alex’s cheek before snuggling to him. Alex smiled and pulled him closer to him before burying his face to George’s hair. 

Finally, both of them thought at the same time. 

# 

I am so stupid, Lando thought as he walked towards his room. I am so fucking stupid. Of course Max liked Mr Ricciardo and Ricciardo liked him and of course they would be now somewhere spending the night together. Of course Max wasn’t actually interested in me. Who the hell would even be interested in me?

Lando was done with this night. All the good feeling of the moment with Max and seeing his parents again were long gone when he finally got to the room. He slammed the door closed with all of his power. He groaned loudly before turning to really look at the room. He hadn’t expected this.

“Max?” Lando looked at the other boy shocked. Max was sat on his own bed still in his suit, only the tie thrown away. Lando was able to see tear tracks on Max’s face as he boy just stared forward. Lando moved in front of him dropping to his knees to look at Max. “Max what has happen?”

“Nothing that hasn’t happened before”, Max said voice hoarse from crying. There were no tears left as he just stared forward to his hands. “Just me making a mistake after another.”

Max wasn’t sure how long he had been in the room alone. It felt like he had been crying for hours. The only thing he had been able to get off was the tie when he felt like he was starting to choke. After that he had just transfixed on the bed, his mind going too fast. He felt his whole pathetic life go in his mind. Every party night gone wrong, every fight he had been in, every time he and his father clashed. Everything. Why am I just a fuck up, he kept asking himself. 

“Max”, Lando said a bit stronger to his friend moving his hands to cup his face. Max moved his gaze to meet Lando’s as the smaller boy stroked his cheeks. “I’m here for you. Please trust me. What has happen?”

Max stayed quiet just looking at Lando. Lando started getting frustrated. They had been roommates for almost two months already and he had never seen Max anything close to this. Sometimes the boy was bit more quiet and wanted to be alone. Sometimes he was frustrated and angry when it came to losing a football game or homework being too hard. But Max was never sad and especially cry. It hurt Lando to see his friend in this state. Max always helped him when he was having a bad moment. Now it was his turn to help.

He needed to know what had happened. He needed to find a way to help Max. Max had been fine in the ball. Not excited about it but clearly okay and the moment he spent with Lando and his parents he was smiling a true smile through it all. Something has happen, Lando thought. He thought back to Pierre and Max’s phone before asking the question he really didn’t want to ask. 

“Max does this have something to do with Mr Ricciardo?” Lando asked carefully from him. Max’s gaze dropped right away and Lando’s eyes widen. “So that is a yes. Max please. Please I won’t tell anyone else but I need to know.”

“He kissed me and I had to fight him off me”, Max said quietly keeping his gaze down. He still thought it wasn’t such a big deal. Yes it was wrong and he still felt his heart beat faster than it should. But it’s my fault anyway, Max thought. Just like everything. “But it’s fine. I don’t care about that. Worse things have happen anyway so… Just… just brought bad stuff to mind that is all.”

Lando tried to keep his shock, disgust and anger inside him. Him showing his emotions wouldn’t help Max right now when he wasn’t even sure if the other boy was in reality fully. Really Lando just wanted to find the teacher and make him suffer. Hell with that he wanted to find every single person that had ever hurt Max and make them suffer. 

“Max is not your fault”, Lando told the boy softly lifting Max’s face softly so their gaze would meet. “It’s not your fault in anyway. Mr Ricciardo is an awful human. Maybe… Maybe we should just sleep now? You tired?”

Max nodded to Lando a little. Lando stood up offering his hand to Max. Max didn’t even have to think about it as he grabbed it. Lando pulled him up and as soon as Max was standing he wrapped his arms around Lando. He buried his face to the younger boy’s hair trying to calm himself. Lando held Max tighter running his hand on Max’s back and another playing in his hair. Max was able to feel his heart beat finally get slower. 

They stayed like that for a few minutes before Max slowly pulled away walking to the bathroom. He washed his face with cold water trying to gather himself. Meanwhile Lando changed out of his suit to his pyjama shorts and shirt. He looked out of the window just trying to process everything that happened during the night. Mostly he just felt anger. Anger towards everyone who has hurt Max.

Max was already in bed under covers when Lando came out of the bathroom. He opened the covers right away to Lando looking to him with pleading eyes. Lando gave him a soft smile before shutting the lights and slipping under the blanket next to Max. He wrapped his arms around him right away. Max snuggled closer to him closing his eyes and taking deep breaths. 

“Max?” Lando whispered carefully. Max hummed a bit pressing face against Lando’s chest. He still wanted to talk to him.“What happened wasn’t your fault and I care about you so much. Please believe me.”

“I believe you”, Max whispered after a moment of silence. He wasn’t fully sure about that but he wanted to believe him. Lando smiled a bit right away. “Good night Lando and thank you.”

“You are welcome”, Lando whispered and placed a kiss to Max’s hair. “Good night.”

#

Daniel walked towards the headmaster’s office, hands shaking a little. It was only the morning after the ball but he had seen Christian’s car outside so he assumed the headmaster was in his office. Probably counting all the supporting checks he had got from a day before. Daniel stopped by the door and took a deep breath before knocking on the door. He waited till he heard a voice call him in. 

“Daniel?” Christian said surprised looking at the young teacher. “What are you doing here?”

Trying to save my career, Daniel thought as he took another deep breath. He knew this was wrong. He this was just plain lying. But if Christian believed his lie, he wouldn’t have to live in fear. This was for the best. At least for him. Sorry Max, he thought in his mind. 

“I wanna report a student sexually harassing me. Max Verstappen came on to me yesterday and kissed me.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Next chapter up on Friday :)
> 
> My tumblr : [maxynorris](https://maxynorris.tumblr.com/)


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max is in trouble but at least he has support. George and Lewis clear the air. Things take a tense turn for Pierre and Charles (at least for a moment)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reading all the comments from last chapter was fun but I promise we are so close to getting rid of Daniel! 
> 
> I hope you enjoy this chapter! (I didn't have time to read through his chapter so there might be bit more of mistakes)

“That’s bullshit”, Max said strongly looking between Daniel and Christian eyes wide. What the hell did I just hear, Max thought having a hard time gathering his thoughts. “I did not come onto Daniel yesterday. He fucking kissed me!”

Max’s head is spinning at that point. He had woken up from Lando’s arms when Christian had called him. The headmaster had been angry at the phone just telling him to come to his office right away. When he had arrived at the office, he had been told to sit down and explain what had happened the night before. When Max hadn’t said anything just confused over the whole situation, Christian told him Daniel’s story of the night. 

“That’s not true”, Daniel said right away, keeping his gaze on the floor. Christian was looking between them. “I have never shown any interest in Max.”

“Bullshit again!” Max said right away starting to pull his phone out of his pocket before realising. All the messages were gone. Daniel had told him to delete them and he did. Max turned to stare at Daniel. “You are so sick… Did you plan this all?”

Daniel swallowed hard just keeping his gaze down on the floor. Max felt his hands start to shake a little. This was not happening, he told himself. All he wanted was to forget about the night before. He would had never even told about Daniel to any of the staff. And now he was the one getting accused. 

“You don’t have any proof”, Max turned to look at Christian. He ignored Daniel for now. He wouldn't go down without a fight. “In either of our cases. His words against mine. That’s it.”

“It would be but somehow I’m believing in Daniel’s words more”, Christian looked at Max. Max feels his heart drop at that. “You are trouble Max and I have let your behaviour go through my fingers. This is the result then I guess.”

“I didn’t do anything!” Max said strongly gripping the handles of his seat. He looked straight at Christian. “Daniel came on to me yesterday! He kissed me and I had to push him away because he wouldn’t let go! He is lying!”

“Look I’m fine with no conseconseus”, Daniel said quickly before Christian had time to say anything. Both turned to look at him while Daniel was just looking down to the floor still. “I can see the kiss as only a mistake Max did in a weak moment. I’m not angry or anything… I just wanted to clear the air.”

And make sure no one would ever believe Max if he came forward, Daniel thought to himself. He needed to save his career and make the distance between him and Max big enough. Big enough that the young boy wouldn’t be a temptation time after time. 

“Clear the air by lying about what happened?” Max asked his voice strong. Daniel turned his head a bit away from Max to make sure he wouldn’t look at him. “You can’t even look at either of us because you are lying! You ar-” 

“Max!” Christian interrupted the teen with his angry voice. Max winced at the anger of the head master’s voice just slumping down to the chair. Christian turned to look at Daniel. “You can leave Daniel. Me and Max continue alone from here on.”

Daniel nodded quickly grabbing his bag heading towards the door. Max followed the teacher with his gaze but stayed still in his chair not risking on getting Christian angrier. It wasn’t the first time he was called to the office because something stupid he had done but Christian had still never been angry. Now he was. The fight inside Max was starting to fade away. 

“I didn’t do what he says”, Max said when the door closed behind him. He lifted his gaze to meet with Christian’s. “I have done lot of shit in my life but sexually assaulting someone isn’t something I do. And I have no proof of the messages he has sent me but Pierre has seen them too.”

“Max I don’t care”, Christian said simply looking at the boy. “I can’t trust a word you say. I don’t know what to do with you now…”

“But I didn’t do it”, Max said his voice starting to break a little. He would never do something like that. “I… please don’t tell my dad about this. I don’t want to leave this school please.”

“Funny since I haven’t really seen you care about staying here. You should already be out of this place but that’s my mistake… Now go to your room. You are suspended for the next five days while I figure out what to do. No classes. No football practise. You stay in your room while I figure what I do with you.”

Max didn’t fight that. He only nodded and stood up. If he wanted to have any chance in staying in the school, he wouldn’t make the older man angrier. He turned around when he reached the door. 

“Please don’t tell my dad.”

“I won’t… at least yet.”

Max bit his lower lip getting out of the office. He felt his head spin when he tried to understand everything that had happened. Daniel accused him of kissing him. Christian was ready to throw him out. No one was believing him. 

Max ran to the nearest toilet to throw up from the sick feeling. 

#

To say George was happy when he woke up was an understatement. George was thrilled. He was excited. He was the happiest he had ever been. He was happiest he would probably ever be. 

George was laying on the bed just looking at Alex’s face with a soft smile. Alex had wanted to sleep with him. He had wanted to cuddle him. That had to mean something, George thought slowly moving his hair to stroke Alex’s hair. The other boy let out a little hum but was still in deep sleep. 

Their legs were tangled together. Alex’s arms were wrapped around George’s waist tightly pulling him back every time George moved even the slightest. Meanwhile George had spent the night curled against Alex’ chest. I could get used to this, George thought smiling. His whole mind was filled with happy pink cloud. Nothing could bring him down now. 

At least until he tangled enough away from Alex to grab his phone to check the time. George felt his heart drop a bit the night before coming crashing down on him as stared at the notification. Three messages from Lewis. 

‘call me when you wake up. we gotta talk.’

‘i wanna clear things between us’ 

‘please georgie’

I hate that nickname was the first thought in George’s mind. The second was what the hell was happening. George looked at the messages for a moment before slowly starting to tangle himself off Alex’s hold. Alex groaned still asleep when he felt George leave the bed grabbing his hand to try and stop him. 

“Shh Alex just keep sleeping honey”, George kneeled down next to the bed. He moved his hand to stroke Alex’ hair softly while carefully pushing his pillow to Alex’s arms. “Shh just sleep.”

Alex snuggled against the pillow right away continuing sleeping peacefully with a faint smile on his face. George just stared at him for a moment with a smile before leaning down to press a kiss to his hair. He could spend hours just looking at Alex sleep peacefully but right now it wasn’t the time for that. 

George quickly got sweatpants and a hoodie on heading out of the bedroom with his phone. The common room and hallway were fully empty, everyone still probably sleeping in their rooms… or in someone else’s room. I really have to thank Nicky, George thought as he headed to the balcony for fresh air. 

George stared at his phone for a moment while just leaning against the railing. He barely remembered when he had talked with Lewis alone for a longer time. Well there is time for everything, he thought and pressed Lewis’ number. 

“George hey”, Lewis answered almost right away. George stayed silent wanting to know what this was about. “I’m glad you called me. I’m so sorry for being such a crap brother. I never realized how hard I was making everything to you… I really shouldn’t have come to the ball yesterday. Or I should have asked you if you were okay with it.”

George looked at his phone stunned. Lewis was apologizing to him? George was pretty sure it was him who should be apologizing for his explosion on his brother. It wasn’t supposed to go like this. George had a hard time coming up with what to say. 

“George?” Lewis asked after a moment of silence. His voice was worried. “Are you there still?”

“Yeah I’m here I just”, George said to the phone still trying to process everything. “I just… I thought I was the one who was suppose to be apologizing for yesterday… I don’t know what happened and I’m sorry.”

“Now to think of it it’s weird that you hadn’t exploded on me before”, Lewis said with a soft laugh. George smiled a bit to that. “I… I am truly sorry and I want to fix things between us. I just never realised what was happening till Alex spoke to me yesterday. Then I came back home and talked with my boyfriend and… George I’m so sorry.”

George felt a small tear start to run down his cheek. As much as he had grown to hate Lewis over the years, he had truly always just wanted Lewis to love him and be the big brother he saw his friend have. He wanted his approval more than his parents’ one and it felt like he was finally getting it. But wait, George thought. 

“Alex?” George asked confused. Lewis had said Alex right? “What do you mean Alex spoke to you?”

“Yeah yesterday after you left he kinda… told me off to put it simply”, Lewis said and George felt his heart start beating faster. “He made me realise why you exploded and what it really meant… He didn't tell you this? I assumed he left looking for you.”

“Yeah he came to me but he didn’t say anything”, George said a little smile coming to his face. There wasn’t much talking done last night, he thought. “We just… Started sleeping and that’s all. I had no idea.”

“How cute”, Lewis said teasingly. “I’m going to say the same thing I told him. You two make a good pair.”

George swore his cheeks must be bright red at that point. Lewis had told Alex that too? Maybe they really did make a good pair. A really good pair, George thought of getting a warm feeling when he thought about Alex sleeping in his bed. 

George and Lewis continued talking for a moment just changing to actually catching up on their lives. George told about the going football season and what rumours he had heard about the teachers. Lewis told him how hard the school actually was and how he now had a boyfriend named Nico. It felt good to share. 

George stayed outside even after the phone call just looking at the scenery. He was feeling a bit cold, the hoodie not fighting the late fall weather that well but he needed a moment to think about everything. More importantly think about how good life was. 

“Aren’t you like freezing?” George smiled when he heard Alex’s sleepy voice behind him and strong warms wrap around his waist. Alex snuggled face to back of George’s neck. “Why are you here?”

Alex had woken up alone in the bed head all hazy from the night before. He had looked around for George a moment before managing to get out of the bed to look for him. He wanted to go back to sleep but he needed George back to his arms to do that. That was the only thing in his mind now. 

“Oh I was talking with Lewis”, George said softly leaning against Alex. Alex pulled away a little to look at George with a confused look which made George chuckle. “Yeah I know crazy right? But no he texted me telling me that he wanted to talk with me so I called him. We cleared the air between us and… I don’t know what we are now but it’s better.”

“Oh”, Alex tried not to smile too much and just pulled George close again. He didn’t want to show truly how happy and excited he was for his friend. This was a big step. “That’s awesome George.”

“Yeah and it’s all thanks to you”, George turned around in Alex’s arms to face him. Alex’s cheeks blushed right away. “Lewis told me you talked to him… Thank you for that. And thank you for stopping me yesterday before I did something really stupid. Just thank you for always being here for me.”

“You’re welcome though I am happy to do all those things. And I really didn’t even say anything special to Lewis… But you are welcome.”

“And I’m truly sorry about what happened yesterday… Sorry for the past few weeks really. I was being stupid and pushing you away.”

“Well I was doing exactly the same so… We good.”

“We great.”

Alex laughed at that softly. He couldn’t believe he was there standing with George in his arms. After all this time everything seemed to be falling to its place. George kept looking to Alex with a soft smile before his gaze fell on Alex’s lip. His heart started beating harder but before he was able to finally do what he had wanted for such long time cold fall wind hit them making him shiver. 

“Okay you are actually freezing let’s go back to bed”, Alex told George pulling him with him to get inside. He still didn’t let go off George keeping his arm around his waist. “I would really like some cuddles.”

“Well since you ask so nicely”, George chuckled a little as they walked to his bedroom. 

The kisses could wait. Just holding each other was enough for now. 

#

“What the fuck!”

Max was staring to his hands while everyone in the room was looking at him shocked. Lando was sitting next to Max arms wrapped around his friend trying to comfort him while Pierre and Charles were sitting on Lando’s bed just staring at Max. He had explained what had happened in the office to the other boys keeping his gaze down the whole time. 

Max had got back to the bedroom after throwing up everything and crying for a moment alone. He had walked to Lando’s arms right away just wanting to some comfort while trying to understand everything that had happened. Lando had been beyond confused just holding Max tightly against him and stroking his back to calm him. 

But Max was calm. Too calm if you asked Lando. He rather have Max cry and shout than have his friend gone fully numb not reacting to anything. Not caring about anything. 

“This is so sick”, Pierre ran his hand through his hair just looking at his best friend. He tried to wrap his mind around everything Max had just told them. “Daniel is so fucking sick. First he comes on to you and then goes to Horner telling lies… What the hell?”

Lando had come to get Pierre from his room after Max had asked him to get him. Lando had ended up stuttering over everything so worried about what was happening, even Charles followed him just in case to see what was going on. For Charles' surprise Max hadn’t even reacted to him being there too. He had just stared telling what had happened during the night and the morning. 

“Why would Daniel do this?” Charles asked, carefully eyeing Max. He believed Max but he didn’t fully trust him. “The lying I mean.”

“I don’t know”, Max shrugged just keeping his gaze down. Lando squeezed him closer to him. “He doesn’t even want any consequences for me about his lie. He said he is fine with just forgetting about this.”

“But Horner is now thinking about firing you” Charles asked again and Max nodded. I don’t blame him, Charles thought but didn’t say anything. “Wow.”

“Maybe Daniel thought that you would tell on him so he lied about you”, Pierre thought out loud. He rubbed his face. “When I told you, you two would end badly this is not what I had in mind holy shit.”

“It’s not important why Daniel did this”, Lando looked at Pierre and Charles. “Important thing is that we obviously need to prove that he is lying so Horner doesn’t kick Max out.”

“Lando”, Max said quietly and shook his head a bit. He didn’t believe there was a way out of this anymore. He just now had to hope Christian decided some other punishment. 

“What?” Lando turned to Max. “He sexually assaulted you and lied about you to the headmaster. We will find a way to prove all that so you don’t have to leave. You are not the one that should be suffering!”

“Lando I don’t think there is a way out of this”, Max sighed deeply finally lifting his gaze and turning to look at the other boy. His eyes were red from all the crying. Lando couldn’t find any emotion in them as Max spoke. “There is no proof and Christian will never believe me. That’s it.”

“That’s it?” Lando asked getting angry now. He pulled his arms away from Max staring at him, Charles and Pierre long forgotten. Max shrugged to him. “That’s it? Why aren’t you fighting this? This is injustice towards you and you don’t deserve this Max!”

“Maybe I do. Maybe this is just karma getting back at me.”

“What karma? You didn’t fucking do anything Max! You are not guilty!”

“I didn’t do anything now but I have done enough shit in my life already to piss everyone off. Christian should have kicked me out a long time ago. Karma.”

“So you are just giving up? You are not even gonna fight this?”

Max shook his head simply to Lando. Lando looked at his friend stunned before shaking his own head heading out of the room slamming the door close behind him. There was no way this was happening. None of this was happening, Lando thought just feeling ill. Not only what Daniel had done but what was happening to Max and him possibly losing him. This is not happening, Lando thought as he headed to George’s room for help. 

Max flinched a little when the door got slammed shut. He had been able to think everything in his mind over too many times already. Every time it felt more unreal. It also felt like every time it was more impossible to get out of the mess. He definitely didn’t have the power in him. 

“I want to be alone”, Max turned his gaze to Pierre and Charles suddenly. He focused on Pierre wanting him to at least understand him. “Please.”

Pierre nodded right away standing up pulling Charles up too when the other boy was just looking between him and Max. Before leaving Pierre wrapped arms around Max for a hug. Max hugged Pierre back closing his eyes. 

“You don’t have to fight this”, Pierre whispered to his ear. Max sniffed a little. “I will find a way to get you out of this mess.”

Pierre pressed a kiss to Max’s hair before letting go off him. Max looked up to him before just giving a little nod and laying down on the bed carefully. Pierre grabbed Charles’ hand pulling him out of the room towards theirs. Charles still gazed to Max quickly before leaving the room. 

“We need to find proof about Daniel’s action”, Pierre said as soon as he and Charles got back to their room. Charles turned to look at his friend with a confused look on his face. “We need to really think this through.”

“But didn’t Max just say that he is fine with whatever comes out of this”, Charles asked while Pierre was getting a notebook out to make markings. “And what do you mean we? You and me?”

“Max is just too much of a shock to think straight”, Pierre said right away starting to write everything down from Max’s tale. Charles was still unsure about it just looking at Pierre. “And yes you and me now come on help me.”

“I don’t think so… One Max doesn’t want help. Two I don’t really care about Max that much. Three honestly don’t you think his theory of this being karma getting back could be right? The worst thing that happens is that he has to change to some other boarding school. That’s it.”

“One Max has gone some dark place he doesn’t know what he says. Two this is hurting Max and therefore hurting me so you don’t have to care about him but I thought you care about me! Three leaving this school will be absolute hell for him don’t even get me started on what will happen if his father finds out.”

Pierre was staring at Charles taking deep breaths. His voice had raised during his speech getting more angry bit by bit. All he had done for the past months had been helping Charles and if the other boy couldn’t see what this meant to him he was done. He didn’t want to lose Max. He didn’t want to lose either of them. 

“You said yesterday that nothing you will ever say or do will make up for everything I have done to you”, Pierre said strongly. This was his last card in this. “This makes up for everything. You need to help me with this.”

Charles looked at Pierre for a moment before nodding. It’s not like he could say no to that. His heart still ached a bit as he sat down next to Pierre starting to recap everything Max had told them. There would be time to tell his real thoughts about this and have an actual conversation about it all but Pierre needed him now. He had needed Pierre enough many times already. 

“We basically need to get Daniel to confess and record it somehow”, Pierre groaned looking at everything they had written down. “How the hell we gonna do that?”

“I have an idea”, Charles said after a moment of just staring at the papers. Pierre turned to look at him. “You think we can hide a microphone somewhere under my shirt?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Next chapter up on Tuesday :)
> 
> My tumblr if you wanna come say hey : [maxynorris](https://maxynorris.tumblr.com/)


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lando breaks George and Alex's moment. Pierre and Charles have a plan to save Max.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first scene basically belongs to last chapter but that chapter was too long so here it is! Also I'm not really that happy with this chapter honestly struggling a bit with this fic atm but we push through 
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

The clock was closer to afternoon when Alex and George woke up the next time. This time George was holding Alex warms wrapped around the other boy’s waist. Alex’s back was pressed against George’s chest. The single bed wasn’t too small for them at all. 

“For fuck sake”, Nicholas groaned loudly when he opened the door to the bedroom waking both of the boys from the faint sleep they were in. George startled automatically pulling Alex closer as he gazed at Nicholas. “Look I have shipped you two since like the second week of school last year but this is also my room!”

George felt his cheeks blush just hiding his face behind Alex quickly. Had they been that obvious to everyone but to him and Alex? This was embarrassing but for his luck Alex was his saviour again. 

“Go hang with Dany”, Alex turning enough to be able to look at Nicholas. “We are just waking up, give us a moment and I will disappear from here.”

“Where do you think I came from?” Nicholas chuckled leaning against the door frame smiling at the pair. He wasn't actually angry but happy for his friends. That didn’t mean he couldn’t make fun of them together. “I spent the night sleeping in your bed because I didn’t want to know what was happening under your guys’ blanket.”

“Nothing happened under the blanket and shut up Nicky”, George muttered glaring at his roommate a bit only getting Nicholas to smile even brighter at them. “I will do your math homework for a week if you disappear for like an hour or two please.”

“I think you are overestimating your stamina George”, Nicholas smirked before a pillow thrown by Alex hit him straight to his face. “Okay okay I’m going!” 

Nicholas sneaked out of the room quickly before he would get anything else thrown at him. Alex turned in George’s arms so they boys would be able to face each other. They looked at each other before both broke to laughing. 

“So everyone else has been thinking that we are the perfect pair for over a year”, George laughed softly slowly letting go off Alex and sitting up stretching his arms. “And we have been fools who haven’t go it?”

“Seems like it”, Alex chuckled a little sitting up also yawning big. That had been the best sleep he had ever had and would still gladly just keep laying on the bed with George. “We stupid.”

“Yeah”, George chuckled a little before he felt his stomach growl. He got out of the bed carefully starting to pull the sweat and hoodie on again. “You hungry?”

“Absolutely starving”, Alex smiled yawning again sitting on the edge of the bed. He just stopped to look at George smiling. I swear I’m in heaven, Alex thought. “You have clothes for me? If I go to my room Nicky will probably tell me to fuck off.”

George chuckled walking to his closet throwing a pair of sweats and hoodie to Alex. George looked at Alex get them on just thinking how good Alex looked in his clothes and how good it made him feel. George walked over to Alex wrapping his arms around his waist pulling him close. 

“You look good”, George said quietly, his gaze dropping to Alex’s lips. George licked his own lips noticing Alex follow his tongue. 

“You think so?” Alex smirked a bit to George. His heart was beating against his chest. “You need to start lending me your clothes more often then.”

“Oh I plan to”, George whispered to Alex before leaning to him. 

Before their lips touched, the door opened again. George was ready to start shouting at Nicholas when he pulled away from Alex to see the door but instead his heart dropped. 

“Lando”, George let go off Alex right away hurrying to wrap his arms around his crying friend. Lando wrapped arms around George pressing his face to his chest trying to muffle the sobs. “What has happen?”

“Ma- Max he.. he”, Lando tried to say through the sobs. His whole body was shaking in George’s arms. Alex moved close to Lando running his hand on his back trying to calm him but Lando found it just harder to speak. “Max wa-.”

“Has Max done something to you?” George asked filled with rage in less than a second. “I’m going to go kill him!”

“NO!” Lando managed to say and shook his head. No Max definitely hadn’t done anything. He had done nothing and he didn’t deserve this, Lando thought. “He… no.”

“Sit him down and I get him water”, Alex told George over Lando’s head. George hesitated a bit before nodding and pulling Lando to sit on his bed. I can kill Max later, he thought. 

George pulled Lando his lap just holding his friend against his chest while shushing him. He ran his hand up and down on Lando’s back while Alex held Lando’s hands rubbing his thumb over the back of his hand. When Lando started calming down, Alex gave him the water glass helping him drink carefully. 

“Okay Lando what has happen?” George asked carefully when Lando had been finally able to stop the sobs and was breathing calmer in his arms. “What has Max… What is it?”

“You guys can’t tell anyone”, Lando said wiping his tears a little. He looked between Alex and George who nodded right away. “Okay so Max…”

Lando told the pair everything from the notification on Max’s phone to what had happened during the night to what Horner had told Max in the morning. He knew Max probably didn’t want anyone to know but Lando’s heart was hurting too much not to let his emotions out. Especially when Max didn’t want any reactions. 

By the end of the speech both Alex and George looked at Lando horrified while the smallest boy had tears on his cheeks again. Lando was pouting just looking to his hands. 

“I don’t want to lose him”, Lando said in a tiny voice. His head felt dizzy from everything. “I care about him so much and this is so wrong. He hasn’t done anything wrong and he… He doesn’t even care about this.”

“Shh Lando he is just in shock”, Alex tried to help but just looked to George lost. He had no idea what to say to make everything okay. “He needs time and I’m sure he will start fighting back. Max wouldn’t let this just go like this.”

“Maybe I could call Lewis for help”, George thought outloud sighing. Lando looked up to him right away. “He might not be a real lawyer yet but he knows stuff and all… But Lando whatever happens in this you have us two. We will always be here for you.”

Lando nodded a little to George not wanting to think about anything anymore. He felt drained and just leaned his head on George’s chest closing his eyes for a moment. George smiled a bit placing his head on top of Lando’s head while just looking at Alex. He reached his hand to take his. This definitely wasn’t what he had planned but Lando needed him. Lando needed them both. 

“Did I interrupt you guys doing something?” Lando asked suddenly and George dropped Alex’s hand. Lando pulled away a bit looking at them both. “What were you guys doing?”

“We were actually heading to eat”, Alex said right away giving Lando a soft smile. “Would you wanna come eat with us? You wash your face and we can go.”

Lando looked to George right away to make sure he was okay with him tagging along. George nodded to Lando right away with a smile. Lando jumped up right away to go to the bathroom to wash his face. Alex turned to look at George taking his hand to his again. He gave him a bit of a sad smile. 

“We have time just two of us later”, Alex told him quietly squeezing George’s hand. “I’m sure.”

“Me too”, George smiled back to him. He leaned to press a quick kiss on Alex’s cheek before standing up quickly when Lando came back from the bathroom. “Let’s go eat!”

#

“Okay you ready?” Pierre asked from Charles for fourth time already as they were in the hallway whispering to each other. “You remember the plan and everything you will say right? This might be our only chance.”

It was Tuesday after the debutante ball weekend. Max spent all his time just laying on his bed trying to sleep while waiting for Horner’s decision. There was no fight left in him, so his friends had decided to fight it for him. 

“Yes Pierre I remember everything”, Charles smiled to Pierre squeezing his hand quickly before taking a step back. He smirked at him a bit. “How do I look?”

Hot, Pierre thought while looking at Charles. It was a free period between lessons and Charles was in the school uniform of dark blue blazer, white button down and dark pants. However he had few buttons open on the shirt and the tie was only loosely hanging on his neck. He had messed his hair on purpose to look like a mess. A hot mess. 

“You look great”, Pierre smiled at Charles biting his lower lip a little. So freaking great, he thought but forced himself to focus. “There is no way he can resist you.”

“Well since he likes his boys young”, Charles hummed checking that the recorder was on one more time before taking a deep breath. “Here we go.”

Pierre nodded to Charles right away and gave him a smile as the other boy knocked on the door biology room door and slipped in. The plan was risky and maybe even little stupid but it was the only one that they had came up with. Charles would flirt with Daniel till they either got a confession out of him or have him flirt back. All would be recorded on a small recorder Charles had hidden to his blazer. 

“Charles?” Daniel turned from his laptop towards the door with a smile. He was having a free period just going through returned homework. “What you doing here? Need help with homework?”

“Oh not with homework but maybe something else”, Charles smiled as innocently as to Daniel as possible. Oh this will be easy, Charles thought when he noticed Daniel looking at him from head to toes. “I’m just here to ask how you doing after the whole Max thing?”

“Max thing?” Daniel tensed a bit right away eyeing at Charles carefully. He had tried to push that as far away from his mind as possible. “I don’t know what you talking about.”

“Look it’s a small school and rumours go around fast”, Charles smiled walking over to Daniel’s table placing one had on it leaning slightly. That was a lie. There were no rumours and it would stay that way. “Can’t believe he would do something like that… Though to be honest I kind of do get it…”

“Excuse me?” 

“I mean you are super hot so who wouldn’t want to kiss you… Or do other stuff with you. I know I would!”

“Charles...”

“What? You don’t think I’m hot?”

Daniel was biting his lower lip at that point just looking at Charles up and down. Charles was extremely hot especially looking like he was now. Charles leaned bit more towards Daniel running his hand through his hair lowering the hand his hair to his neck and chest exposing more skin. Daniel’s eyes followed his hand. So easy, Charles thought. 

“You know I’m really good at keeping secrets. So if you just want… We would be hot together! It doesn’t even have to be anything serious.”

“I…”

“What? You don’t want me? You can just say no.”

Daniel didn’t say anything just looking at Charles for a moment before turning to his laptop to continue working. Do not fuck this up, he told himself. You just got rid off Max. Don’t do this again. 

Charles looked at Daniel before leaning away. He tried to keep his smirk off his face as he walked out of the classroom. Maybe not exactly what they had planned but Daniel hadn’t said no. If this didn’t be enough proof with Lando’s telling of how he found Max and Pierre’s memory of all the messages, Horner was crazy. Add to that Lewis’ promise of starting to help with the case if Max just wanted. 

“How did it go?” Pierre asked as soon as Charles got out of the classroom. He had been waiting outside nervously. Charles smiled brightly right away nodding and Pierre sighed relieved. “Really?”

“He let me flirt with him like no problem and didn’t say no to anything”, Charles smirked to Pierre taking the recorder out. “He didn’t exactly say yes but I think this is already plenty.”

“Oh my god Charles you are the best!” Pierre smiled excited almost jumping on Charles to hug him tightly. Charles laughed a little wrapping arms around Pierre tightly. “Okay let’s go get everyone and go to Horner!” 

“Yes please”, Charles chuckled grabbing Pierre’s hand as they headed to the library to get George and Lando with them. “Let’s get this done as fast as possible because ugh I feel like I need a shower after that.”

“You’re a hero”, Pierre pressed a quick kiss on Charles’ cheek making the other boy’s cheeks blush. Totally worth it, he thought. 

#

“It seems I may have done a mistake”, Christian said looking at Max. They were in his office just two of them sitting opposite to each other. Max had his arms crossed over his chest just staring at the headmaster. “And I want to apologize for that.”

Max snorted at that a little but didn’t say anything. To be honest everything was bit messy in his head still but even then he wasn’t accepting that apology easy. He had woken up to Pierre coming to his room telling him to get up and that Horner wanted to talk to him. That had almost sent Max to a panic attack before Pierre had explained everything on their way to the office. Apparently his friends had saved him. It would take a moment for that to set in. 

“I will be firing Daniel and if you want we can call the police about him assaulting you”, Christian said, trying not to show any emotions. “You are of course back to being a normal student and everything continues like before. And I never told your dad about this before you ask. I didn’t tell anyone anything.”

Max nodded a little to that. At least that. It would mean that no one needed to know about the mess and he could just push it away. Continue like nothing had happened… All of this needed time to set in. But he knew one thing. 

“I don’t want to call police”, Max said, moving his gaze down a bit. He did still feel like at least part of it had been his own fault. “I just want him gone and I don’t ever want to see him again. That is all.”

“And that is what is going to happen”, Christian promised right away nodding to him. “He will be gone by tomorrow… I really am sorry Max. I should have believed you.”

“And I probably should have been a better student for the past year”, Max shrugged but shook his head. It’s not your fault, he heard Lando’s voice in his head. 

On the other side of the office’s door, five boys were waiting. George and Alex had once again simply cuddled Lando between them as the smaller boy was almost shaking from nervousness. On the other side of the hallway Charles and Pierre were sitting side by side. They were holding hands, Charles moving his thumb on back of Pierre’s hand to keep him calm as they waited. 

Charles, Pierre, Lando and George had all together gone to the office to defend Max while Alex had been waiting for them outside wanting to be there for support for the wait. After they had got everything out, Horner had asked Pierre to get Max to the office. Now they were just waiting to know what was happening on the other side of the door. 

“Guess who is back?” Max opened the door suddenly walking to the hallway. It would still take for some time to understand absolutely everything that had happened the past few days but right now he was back to being a normal student and that was the most important thing. Normal student with best friends. 

“How did it go?” Pierre was the first one to jump up and wrap his arms around Max tightly. Lando tried to get up quickly but fell on the first try just wanting to get to Max. “He believed everything right?”

“Yeah everything is good now”, Max smiled just hugging Pierre tightly and laughing a bit when Lando joined the hug right away. “I’m back to being a student. This can all be put behind now.”

“Thank god!” Lando squealed happy as Pierre let go off Max and he got to hug his roommate alone. He wouldn’t be losing Max. 

“No thank all of you guys”, Max looked between all the boys with a smile. “Honestly my head is dizzy as fuck at the moment and I’m not sure this is even real life but thank you so so much! I don’t think I can ever pay you guys for this.”

“We can talk about ways you can pay us later”, Charles smirked to Max making everyone chuckle a little. Charles reached to take Pierre’s hand again when the boy stood next to him. 

“Can I start paying you guys by offering that we can all leave this place for tonight and go eat somewhere?” Max offered with a smile Lando still settled under his arm. Lando had his arms wrapped around Max deciding that he would never let go. “For some reason Christian was being super nice just now so… Who wants to go?”

All of the boys nodded right away and they started walking out. Pierre and Charles talking excited about how they still couldn’t believe their plan worked. Alex and George just both gazing to each other with soft smiles feeling butterflies in their stomach. Now that Lando was okay they could focus on each other. Meanwhile Lando was more than okay as he and Max walked together arms around each other. 

“You okay now?” Lando asked carefully from Max smiling up to him. “How you feeling?”

“Honestly not sure”, Max hummed but smiled to Lando soflty. “I think it’s gonna take a moment but I will be okay. More than okay.”

“I will be here for you through it all”, Lando smiled softly. 

Max placed a kiss to Lando’s hair as an answer. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Next chapter up on Saturday :)
> 
> My tumblr if you wanna come say hey : [maxynorris](https://maxynorris.tumblr.com/)


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lando and George have another emotion hours. Charles is frustrated and comes up with a plan to get Pierre's attention. Alex is sleepy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you can see the ? mark has changed to 16. I had a sleepless night and brainstormed the coming chapter ideas! Still many chapters left! Also I didn't proof read this bc I'm tired so sorry about that
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

“What do you mean you guys haven’t kissed yet?” Lando stared at George eyes wide. Lando was sat on George’s bed once again while the other boy was sitting by his desk. “It’s been like almost two weeks since the ball and you guys haven’t kissed? You guys are together now!”

“Well yeah we agreed to be boyfriends but…”, George groaned a little gazing at Lando. Thank god Alex was with Charles again doing French homework. “We haven’t had time.”

“Two weeks George”, Lando said with a brow raised at his friend. “You two spent all your time together anyway.”

“No we don’t”, George tried defending himself but Lando’s look made him sigh. Yeah they did spend almost all time together just like before. “Okay yeah but everytime we almost kissed either you barged in, Nicky came to the room or someone’s phone rang ruining the moment and now… Now it’s just awkward… And I would like to add that we might spend lot of time together but you are kind of third wheel to us.”

Lando felt his cheeks blush right away and looked down to his lap. George did have a point in that. It had been a week and half since the ball but Max was still a bit off obviously going through stuff and Lando didn’t want to push himself on him now. So now instead he had apparently pushed himself to the middle of George and Alex. The guilty feeling started to creep up on Lando slowly. 

“Hey no Lando I didn’t mean it like that!” George had appeared in front of Lando taking his hands to his. Lando pouted automatically while the other boy squeezed his hand. “Lando you know that I love you and you are my good friend. You are more than welcomed to hang with me and Alex.”

George did really mean what he said. Lando was fun to hang out with and of course the boy was always welcomed to hang with him and Alex… It just was that it would be nice to spend some time just two of them for once. Especially when Alex seemed a bit tired lately, George wanted to be there for him. 

“But you guys deserve some alone time”, Lando said lifting his gaze enough to look at George. He couldn’t believe he had been so selfish and not even realise what he had done. “I’m sorry I didn’t realise… It’s just that… Max.”

“Yeah I know”, George gave Lando a soft smile before sighing a bit. He did love Lando a lot and care about him. He just had his concerns. Maybe it was time for some though love, he thought. “Lando I’m going to be honest with you right now. You need to let go off Max a bit. You came here and launched on to him from the first day on. You haven’t even made any other friends. I know you are scared of new people but you need new friends.”

“Hey I have new friends!” Lando defended himself right away to George. He had a lot of new friends, he thought. Max definitely wasn’t the only one. “Alex is a new friend!”

“Have you guys ever hang out without me? And sitting next to each other on football games doesn’t count.”

“O- Okay not really… Pierre is a new friend!”

“Have you talked to him without having Max around? And the whole Mr Ricciardo situation doesn’t count.”

“... Not really.”

Okay maybe I don’t have any other new friends than Max, he thought dropping his gaze again. It’s not my fault though, Lando thought. New people just made him nervous and he had hard time trusting other people thanks to all the old bullies. He rather be with people he was comfortable with. He knew it was his weak point and he had tried to get better at it now in the new school. 

And he had really thought he had been making a lot of progress with it. But yeah he didn’t spend time with Alex or Pierre alone ever. And even in those moments he was always clinging on to either Max or George. Oh, he thought. Oh. 

“Lando no one is going to bully you in this school”, George promised Lando when he looked up again. “Everyone here is so nice. Just go talk to new people. Just try? I’m still always here for you.”

“Yeah I’ll try”, Lando nodded to George, giving him a smile. He definitely wasn’t sure about that but George wanted to hear that so he said it. George gave him a big smile right away. 

“Thanks”, George smiled standing up. He leaned to press kiss to Lando’s hair softly. Maybe this really helped Lando, he thought. “You are awesome. Anyone would be happy to have you as a friend.”

“Shouldn’t you be saving those kisses and flirts to your boyfriends?”

George grabbed his pillow quickly starting to try to beat the smirk off Lando's face while the smaller boy just laughed happily trying to hide. The conversation long gone for a moment. 

#

“Max has told you at least million times that he is fine”, Charles told Pierre, trying to keep his voice as neutral as possible. They were stretching after a football practise while Max was still kicking a ball with George. “Can you please just believe him already?”

Max was fine, Charles thought. Okay maybe he wasn’t fully the annoying Max he usually was but he was so close to it babysitting him wasn’t necessary. That is at least what Charles’ thought but Pierre was clearly on a different page on that. Charles kept noticing the other boy just staring at Max time after time. 

“Pierre!” Charles clapped his hands to get Pierre’s attention finally turned back to him. Pierre turned his gaze finally to Charles confused look on his face. Charles just sighed. “Stop staring at Max. He is fine.”

“Yeah maybe”, Pierre shrugged a little, changing his legs for the stretch. He turned to look at Charles giving him a smile. “How are you feeling? You seem to be doing so much better now.”

Charles smiled a bit. Pierre was right. He was feeling better. Yeah he still wanted his moments of peace and when he could just sulk for a moment but right now he was finally feeling stable again. The ball and helping Max had made him feel better about himself again. He was getting himself back. The sadness wasn’t overwhelming anymore and he was able to see everything clearer. And one thing he saw now so clearly was Pierre. 

He owed Pierre so freaking much. If he hadn’t been there to keep on helping him, he wasn’t sure if he would have just faded away fully. It was also clear that he had a crush on Pierre and honestly he was pretty sure Pierre had a crush on him. The only thing in the way now was Max. 

“Pierre, your heart is way too big for your own good”, Charles told him with a smile. Pierre’s smile fell a little and the look on his face turned a bit confused. “You go from worrying over Max to worrying over me in seconds… So my turn to ask. How are you Pierre?”

“I’m doing fine”, Pierre shrugged to Charles. Of course he was fine, he thought. He always was. “Since when is having a big heart a bad thing?”

“It becomes bad when you don’t have time for yourself anymore”, Charles told Pierre straight up. Honestly he was a bit worried over Pierre. “Anyway you want to do something today? Watch a movie or something together?”

“Sorry I’m helping Max with his homework since he has suddenly decided to be a good student… Maybe tomorrow night?”

“Okay sure.”

I really gotta get rid of Max, Charles thought, sighing. 

#

When the team won their game on next Friday and Pierre was hugging Max as soon as the whistle blew, Charles had a plan. He clearly wasn’t the only one looking longingly at the best friends hugging. No. There was already someone else staring at especially Max.

Lando. 

“Hey Lando!” Lando turned around surprised when he heard his name being called. He was even more surprised when he saw Charles running towards him. “You busy?”

“Uh”, was the only thing Lando was able to get out as Charles walked towards him. 

He had been fully in his own world just walking alone towards the school after the game. He had assumed everyone but the football team was already inside the school ready for partying. He definitely didn’t want to go to the party so he thought a little walk outside would do good before going in. Especially when he tried taking George’s advice and have let go off Max a bit. 

Right now the decision walking alone felt like the worst possible thing, he thought. He wasn’t scared of Charles no Charles was probably really sweet and but he couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable and unsure. It was clear Charles noticed that. 

“Lando are you okay?” Charles asked carefully, stopping by a good distance to Lando. He looked at the other boy a bit confused. “You look bit freaked out.”

“No no I’m good”, Lando nodded to Charles. Come on gather yourself, he told himself. Charles is nice. “Did you have something for me?”

“Yeah so it’s pretty clear you are in love with Max”, Charles started after a moment of just looking at Lando to make sure the boy was fine. “And I like Pierre so I came up with a plan that helps us both.”

“I’m not in love with Max!”

“Umm sorry to break it to you but you look at him with heart eyes. It’s pretty obvious. But don’t worry I think he likes you too.”

Lando looked Charles bit wary. The tone of Charles’ voice wasn’t a teasing one. It seemed like he actually wanted to help him. Does this mean he could have a friend, he thought. And what was it about getting Max to him? 

“Wha- What is the plan then?” Lando asked, surprising himself at how steady he was able to keep his voice. Charles’ eyes lit up right away and he smiled brightly. “How I get Max and you get Pierre?”

“Well you just became my new best friend Lando!”

Charles started explaining the plan excited to actually get Lando interested. The plan was simple at least on paper. He and Charles would hang out together and make sure Max and Pierre saw that. They would get jealous that way and want to break them to get them back to themselves. Lando was very unsure of the plan but Charles’ excitement made him want to trust it. 

“So you in?” Charles asked as they were in the hallway of their floor. You could hear the party going on upstairs. “I promise you this will work.”

“Uh… Can I think about this?” Lando asked carefully as they reached his bedroom door. To be honest his head was spinning a little from everything. “It’s just a bit much.”

“Of course”, Charles smiled softly to Lando nodding. “And you don’t have to even say yes if you don’t want to. This is only an offer… You coming to the party?”

“Nah not a party person”, Lando shrugged with a smile. And I promised Max we could play together on PS while everyone else was partying. Charles didn’t need to know that, he thought. 

Charles nodded to Lando and gave him a smile before heading to his room. Lando took a deep breath before opening the door to his room. Everything felt a bit bizarre but maybe this was good, he thought. He smiled right away to Max finding the other boy already sitting in the room. 

“Hey what took you so long?” Max smiled right away to Lando. He wasn’t really in a party mood much rather spent the night playing with Lando. “You okay?”

“Yeah yeah I was talking with Charles”, Lando smiled to Max as he got his jacket off. He hadn’t even said that to get any reaction just simply saying what he was doing but Max picked up his words right away. 

“Charles?” Max asked right away. He had heard wrong right, he thought looking at Lando. “You talked with Charles? Why?”

“Oh we are friends”, Lando shrugged a bit trying to act casual. He smiled at Max just thinking how even fresh out of shower Max looked good. “So Fifa?”

“Yeah let’s go”, Max said right away taking Lando’s hand to his starting to pull him with him towards the common room. 

Maybe Charles did have a point in his plan, Lando thought smiling to himself a bit. 

#

Alex was sitting in George’s lap as they were in the party. He just leaned against George’s chest placing his head on George’s shoulder while his boyfriend was talking to some people. George’s hand was moving up and down on his back. It wasn’t the most comfortable position but he was tired and just being close to the other boy felt good. It was the best place to be in. 

“Honey you awake?” he heard George whisper to his ear. He hummed as an answer but didn’t bother to open his eyes. “You want to go to sleep?”

“No wanna be here”, Alex said quietly to George. He felt George sigh under him a bit and he knew exactly what his boyfriend was thinking. “I’m fine George don’t worry.”

He was fine. Mostly fine, he thought. It was still well over month for the Christmas holiday and all the tests before that but he had started already reading through his notes from classes before. He desperately wanted to do well in them and prove he was smart. Even if that meant sometimes reading notes late at night under the blanket so Daniil wouldn’t wake up. 

Speaking of Daniil. 

“I’m going to go sleep to Alex’s bed tonight so you two can finally have some alone time”, Alex opened his eyes when he heard Nicholas’ voice. Both Nicholas and Daniil were standing in front of the pair. “But remember to keep Jesus in your minds.”

“And use protection”, Daniil added with a smirk. Alex growled at him but before he managed to grab a pillow and throw it at them the two boys ran away. 

“I hate our roommates”, Alex yawned a little, sitting up better turning to look at George. 

“Well they just gave us a night for ourselves I don’t think we can really hate them”, George chuckled a little. He moved his hand to stroke Alex’s cheek. “Okay let’s go sleep. You look like you might fall asleep any second.”

Alex sighed but nodded standing up. There was no point in fighting so instead he grabbed George’s hand to his, pulling him up. George said goodbye to some of his teammates before walking back down to their floor. He was excited for just night of them being alone. They would finally have time to just the two of them. 

“You played amazingly today”, Alex told George as they got to the room. George smiled brightly right away. “I mean you do always but… You know.”

“Yeah I know what you mean”, George chuckled a little nodding to him. He moved his hands to cup Alex’s face softly. His boyfriend leaned against his touch right away. “Alex are you okay?”

“Just a bit tired”, Alex hummed with a soft smile. He noticed the worry if George’s eyes right away and he continued quickly. “But I’m fine really… You wanna like watch a movie and cuddle together?”

“You sure you're okay?” George asked but when Alex nodded he decided to believe him. “Okay you can pick the movie. I’ll just brush my teeth quickly because honestly whatever it was that Lance made me drink left a disgusting taste to my mouth.”

Alex nodded to George with a smile looking at him go to the bathroom. He sat down on George’s bed but instead of getting the laptop he just laid down for a moment closing his eyes. All he wanted was to just cuddle George and kiss him and watch the movie with him but the tiredness was taking over. Especially when he knew he would get to be in George’s arms. 

“Alex honey?” he opened his eyes again when he heard George’s voice. His boyfriend had sat down on the bed and his fingers played with his hair softly. Alex hummed happily at the touch. “You absolutely sure you're okay?” 

“Yeah yeah just put the movie on”, Alex smiled to George softly. He hated to see the worry in his eyes. “Please George.”

“No we going to sleep”, George said, grabbing Alex’s hand, starting to pull him up from the bed and getting Alex change of clothes. “But I’m not letting you sleep in jeans.”

Alex laughed at that catching the shorts and shirt George threw at him before going to the bathroom to change. He checked himself on the mirror sighing a bit. There was bit of bags under his eyes but they were still fine. At least he thought so. 

Alex pushed himself to George’s arms snuggling to his boyfriend happily. When he felt George tighten his hold around him, he smiled softly. He pressed his face to George’s neck closing his eyes. 

“I hope you know that you are the best boyfriend there is”, Alex whispered to the darkness. “Thank you for being so amazing.”

“Shut up and sleep”, George laughed softly while moving his hand to Alex’s hair. 

George spent the next hour just looking at Alex sleep. He definitely didn’t feel like the best boyfriend. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Next chapter up on Wednesday :)
> 
> My tumblr if you wanna come say hey : [maxynorris](https://maxynorris.tumblr.com/)


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Charles and Lando's new friendship helps Alex. Meanwhile it's Pierre and Max's turn to have feelings hours. Also there is a first kiss

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy this! (because I'm unsure about this and coming chapters but anyway we push through)

Lando sat in the cafeteria forcing himself to just focus on Charles’ talk about… He really wasn’t sure what Charles was talking about. Maybe football, he thought. But that didn't matter. The plan wasn’t to be actually friends but look like they are. But to be honest Lando didn’t mind having Charles around. 

Charles was actually nice to be around. He was sweet and funny and was really keen on making the jealousy plan work. Lando just followed his lead in everything trying to just keep up. He thought the plan was still a bit crazy but to be honest the plan seemed to be working. 

“I can feel Max stare draggers on my back”, Charles’s chuckle got Lando back to the real world from his thoughts. He gazed at the table where Max was with Pierre and their gazes met quickly before Max moved his gaze. He had been clearly looking at them. “Basically everywhere I go to be honest. He is so dumb.”

“Well at least the plan works towards Max”, Lando smiled to Charles a bit trying to focus on getting some food down. “I don’t think this has a reaction on Pierre though… I mean I don’t feel any daggers on my back.”

“Nah Pierre is a sweetheart he wouldn’t do that”, Charles hummed gazing to Pierre who didn’t even seem that bothered. At least publicly. “He doesn’t want to make you feel bad but honestly I think this is working.”

At least I hope so, Charles thought looking down to his plate. To be honest the plan had been on motion for over a week now and while Max clearly wasn’t happy with Lando suddenly being friends with Charles, Pierre hadn’t given much of a reaction. Charles did notice Pierre maybe being bit close to him when they were in their room together and sometimes Pierre asked help with homework that Charles knew he knew how to make. Charles had to count that as at least something. 

“Hey Charles and Lando”, Alex stopped by the table as he was taking his tray away. He turned to look at Charles. “Can we do a study session today? After your training?”

“Uh sure”, Charles smiled to Alex, a bit unsure. Another study session, he thought. “Alex I’m just not sure that you need my help. You basically know everything already…. I’m not sure how I can help.”

“Alex you are best in French class”, Lando said before Alex had a chance to start talking. Lando gazed quicky to George who was talking with Nicky by the corner of the cafeteria. “Don’t you think you should maybe spend time with George instead?”

“George?” Alex said bit confused. He spent so much time with George. They studied together and hung out together. He hadn’t forgotten about his boyfriend. Of course not. “We hang out all the time… Has he complained about me?” 

Lando gazed to George again before showing Alex to sit down next to him. George had done so much to him, maybe it was his turn to help his friend out. He knew George was too sweet and awkward now to bring this up with his boyfriend. Alex looked at Lando confused but sat down to the chair next to him. 

“George hasn’t complained about you but he is worried about you and you guys”, Lando said honestly keeping his voice down. Alex’s look changed even more confused. “You seem tired a lot of time and I think he overthinking that it’s somehow his fault… And you haven’t kissed yet.”

“You guys haven’t kissed yet?” Charles asked eyes wide looking at Alex, keeping his voice down. He knew he shouldn’t comment. Actually he probably shouldn’t even be listening. Alex felt his cheeks blush deeply. “It’s none of my business but what the hell?”

“I… George complained about that?” Alex asked just trying to focus on Lando and block Charels away. Lando just stared at Alex mouth a bit open in disbelief. “What?”

“Can’t believe a nerd like you is so dumb”, Lando told Alex and Charles nodded to that right away. “What do you think being boyfriends means? You don’t want to kiss George?”

“Of course I do!” Alex said right away voice raising a bit. He felt few people turn their gaze towards him and he lowered his voice quickly. He really wished he wasn’t as tall as he was now wanting to hide away from everyone. “But there hasn’t been a good time.”

“Maybe you should make some time for it then”, Charles interrupted again before Lando had time to continue. Lando was just happy to let Charles take the lead. “So no we are not studying today. You are gonna hang out with George and finally freaking kiss him.”

Alex looked from Charles to Lando who simply nodded showing that he agreed with the plan. Alex gazed to where George was and their eyes met for a moment. He smiled automatically to his boyfriend. George smiled back at him before turning to talk to Nicholas again. 

Okay maybe I have been little dumb, Alex thought. He had thrown himself to school work so fully and if he thought honestly George was a distraction to that. Because whenever he was around George, he forgot about everything else. At those moments George was his whole world… And to be honest he loved those moments more than anything else. 

“I guess being a nerd makes you bad in relationships”, Charles hummed to Lando while Alex was just looking at George. “Or at least dumb in them.”

“You surely have noticed that Pierre is a nerd right?” Lando hummed back while his eyes were following Max and Pierre leaving the cafeteria. 

“Yeah but he special nerd”, Charles shrugged at that following Lando’s lead and looking at the best friend leaving together. He sighed a little before focusing on eating again.

Maybe the plan wasn’t working that well, he thought. 

#

“Why the fuck is Leclerc friends with Lando now?” Max asked Pierre as they were kicking a ball between them waiting for practise to start. They had came there right after the last lesson. “They were having lunch together today for fuck sake. Can’t you like keep him away?”

Max didn’t think of himself as a jealous person but he found it hard to not be jealous right now. Did he have any right for it? Not really, but that didn’t stop his feelings. One why the hell was Lando friends with Charles? Anyone else and he would be fine… at least more fine. Two wasn’t he enough for Lando that he wanted to find someone new? Or maybe he was too much? Max’s head was spinning with questions. 

“It’s my job to babysit Charles now?” Pierre chuckled a litte. Seeing Max like this was mostly just funny to him. And actually kinda sweet. “Sorry I’m kinda busy babysitting you right now.” 

“I don’t need a babysit”, Max murmured, kicking the ball bit harder than necessary. Pierre managed to catch it to his feet but Max gave bit of a apologetic look. “Sorry… I just don’t like them hanging so much.”

“And why is that then?” Pierre teased Max just smiling at him. Max glared at him a bit but dind’t answer anything. “Your crush on Lando is showing.”

“Umm no”, Max said but avoided Pierre’s gaze just focusing on playing with the ball by himself for a moment. He knew it was hard lying to Pierre. It was even harder to accept his feelings. “How could I even have a crush on Lando? He isn’t even my type.”

“Thank god”, Pierre muttered to himself before looking at Max. “You know I think this is planned… Their sudden friendship.”

Pierre couldn’t lie about the new friendship causing feelings in him. Charles had suddenly started talking about Lando a lot and spent some time with him like he was trying to take distance from Pierre. Honestly it was kinda hurting Pierre but he didn’t believe that Charles would want to do that. He had spent one night just thinking about it all trying to figure it out. 

“What do you mean?” Max asked curiously, kicking the ball to Pierre again. “They faking their friendship? Why?”

“Not faking it but”, Pierre tried to find the right words before sighing. “I don’t know… Seems bit weird… Maybe they are trying to get you jealous. Charles likes annoying you and Lando clearly has a crush on you.”

“There’s gotta be something in it for Charles too more than annoying me”, Max hummed but really stopped to think about Pierre’s idea. He was also thinking about the fact that Pierre said Lando had a crush on him. That felt good. Then it hit him. “Charles has a crush on you. It’s obvious… Do you think they are trying to make us jealous?”

“I… Maybe”, Pierre hummed a bit. Not a bad idea… Confusing idea. “Charles doesn’t have a crush on me though… And more importantly I don’t have a crush on Charles. I’m not gay.”

Max snorted at that, making Pierre blush a bit. To be honest if making them jealous was the plan it was working kind of perfect, Max thought. Even if Pierre wouldn’t admit it right away. 

“Come on I’m don’t like guys”, Pierre said throwing his hand around a bit at the look Max gave him. Max had clearly lost his mind, he thought. “I have never tried anything with you. I’m not gay.”

“Well I’m just clearly not your type”, Max rolled his eyes at Pierre. Finally he was the smarter one, Max thought. “That doesn’t prove anything. I have never tried anything with you and I’m gay. You’re just not my type… no offence.”

“No I take that as a compliment”, Pierre smirked a bit to Max. Max rolled his eyes again, kicking the ball a bit harder. Pierre just laughed softly but stopped to think for a moment. “You really think I like guys?”

“I mean I have dragged you with me enough many times gay clubs or parties and I have never seen you exactly shy away from the attention you got from guys.”

“Well… It was nice attention. What can I do about that?”

“And you have a crush on Charles which at least makes you bi. Or are you seriously telling me that this stupid game Lando and Charles has been playing hasn’t like affected you in any way?”

Okay Max might have a point there, Pierre thought as he stopped the ball. Yeah it was annoying him so much but unlike his best friend, he was able to control his feelings and not be a ticking time bomb all the time. Pierre sighed deeply just giving up on kicking the ball and sat down with his thoughts. There was maybe a slight chance of a crush there. 

“We really suck at this don’t we?” Max sighed sitting down on the ground next to Pierre. He grabbed his water bottle taking a sip. “We still have the deal that both single at thirty and we get married right?”

“Of course that promise was made years ago”, Pierre answered right away giving Max a smile. At least he would have his best friend. 

“You agreed to marry me but sure you aren’t gay at all”, Max said after a moment of silence. Pierre shoved him to the ground. 

When the training started, Pierre moved to Charles right away to pair with him. The way Charles’ eyes were shining when he came to him was enough to convince Pierre with his feelings. Yeah he had feelings for this boy. Fuck. 

#

It took quite much convincing to get Nicholas out of the room, but Alex had finally managed to get him out. He had promised to loan all of his notes to his George’s roommate if he just promised to be gone when George would come back from practise and also stay away. He had ignored all the teasing comments Nicholas told him just focusing on wanting to give George the perfect night. 

The perfect night that his boyfriend definitely deserved. Alex pushed all the guilt of not studying for a day to the side and just focused on getting the room ready. It was a boarding school after all but he managed to make the room look nice with what he had. He got candles around the room while dragging his own blanket and pillows to the room to make them a soft nest on George’s bed. He had bought George’s favorite candy from the cafeteria and his laptop ready for movie watching. 

Alex knew he would be losing himself to studying soon again with the stress so overwhelming. Now he needed to prove George how important he was to him. Thank god for Lando, he thought. 

“Alex?” Alex turned around when he heard George’s voice and door opening. His boyfriend looked around confused. “Wha- What you doing? Wasn’t you suppose to have a studying session with Charles?”

“No we are having a date night”, Alex smiled excited to George. “I got your favorite candy and movie and Nicky is away for the whole night.”

“You did this all for me?” smile crept on George’s face slowly. He put his training bag to the floor taking a step closer to Alex. “Why?”

“Because I want to spoil you and show you how important you are to me”, Alex smiled wrapping his arms around George’s waist pulling him close. George looked so happy it made Alex smile even more. “It was about time.”

George stared at Alex just a bit overwhelmed. He had been stuck in his head the past few days just trying to hard to figure out what he was doing wrong with Alex. He had never been in a relationship and he was terrified he was doing something wrong. Definitely because things seemed to be off. 

But this… This had turned everything upside down and overwhelming. In all the good ways, George thought. 

“You… This is a lot Alex”, George smiled softly to Alex wrapping his arms around his neck. “What did I do to deserve this?”

“What did you do to deserve this?” Alex chuckled repeating George’s question. His boyfriend just tilted his head a bit to the side. “Honestly you deserve all of this because you put up with my annoying and tired butt all the time.”

“Well I do like your butt”, George chuckled a little to the answer but felt his cheeks flash fully red while Alex leaned closer. George moved his head back just a when Alex’s lips were about to touch his. “Yo- you sure?”

I have clearly been really bad boyfriend if George is this unsure, Alex thought but instead of answering he just pulled George close pressing their lips together. George froze just for a second before smiling against Alex’s lips letting him really kiss him. He melted against his boyfriend. 

“Fuck”, George breahted out when Alex pulled away just pressing their foreheads together. Alex smiled softly. “Why did we wait so long for that?”

“Because we are dumb”, Alex chuckled a quietly. George nodded to that a bit. “So freaking dumb.”

“You better not wait for another weeks before kissing me aga-”

Alex shut George up with another kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Next chapter up on Sunday :)
> 
> My tumblr if you wanna come say hey : [maxynorris](https://maxynorris.tumblr.com/)


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things explode between Max and Lando. Pierre is stuck in his head. George takes care of Alex when his boyfriend breaks down

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy :)

If Lando wants to play, then we play, Max thought as he looked at Lando and Charles sitting together in the common room looking through some school stuff. Max was sitting on the sofa just looking at Daniil and Nicholas playing Fifa against each other. Or trying to look at the Fifa game. His gaze kept going to Lando and Charles all the time. 

He had been thinking about what he and Pierre had talked on the field. The more he had thought of everything between Lando and Charles he was sure that it was all some plot probably made up by Charles. But Max was fine with that. If he Lando wanted to play a game, he would be up for it. 

When Max got to the bedroom later that evening, Lando was already there reading a book. Lando turned to look at Max right away with a smile. That was the thing. Lando clearly wasn’t able to keep up with the plot when they were alone. 

“Hi!” Lando smiled excited while Max just nodded simple. “You want to play with me? I actually downloaded a new Switch game!”

“Nah”, Max shrugged even though it hurt him. It hurt even more when he saw Lando’s smile fall. “I’m just gonna listen to some music and sleep.”

“Oh”, Lando said not able to hide the pout. He nodded to Max a little forcing a smile. “Okay.”

Max grabbed his headphones, getting them on and laying on the bed. He felt Lando gaze at him a bit but he focused on everything else. Even when it was hurting him. 

#

“Alex!” 

Alex opened his eyes when he heard Charles’ voice close to him. He blinked rapidly just trying to understand what was going on and happening again. Apparently he was in the library. He really didn’t remember coming there but then he saw the French books in front of him and it started slowly coming back. Oh right, he thought. Study session with Charles. 

“Alex, you are so out of this world is not funny anymore” Charles asked worried looking at his friend. He looked Alex before decided what to do and started packing their stuff. “That’s it. I’m dragging you to the nurse’s office. I don’t know how George hasn’t done that yet.”

Because I got angry when he suggested it, Alex thought just looking at Charles pack everything. Because whenever I’m with George, I find energy somehow and pretend to be fine. Because I love George and don’t want to worry him. Because with George I can forget about everything else for a moment.

“Please Charles I’m fine”, Alex begged rubbing his face a little. He was having a hard time believing his own words on that anymore. “Just a bad night really.”

“It seems like you have had a bad night for weeks Alex”, Charles said grabbing both his and Alex’s bags before starting to pull his friend up. “No argument okay. We going to nurse now and after I drop you there I’ll go get George okay?”

“Okay”, Alex took a deep breath and nodded. 

He didn’t exactly have the energy or power to fight Charles on this. And the nurse had a resting table and he could lay there for a few minutes before going back to studying French grammar. So he let Charles drag him with him to the office and leave him to talk to the nurse. 

After getting his blood pressure and sugar checked and light shown to his eyes enough many times, the nurse wasn’t still letting him just go rest on the bed. Alex tried really hard to keep up his walls and not give in but it when the nurse started threatening with having to go to the hospital, Alex broke down and started rambling about the stress and studying. 

At least it got him where he wanted. Finally resting on the bed. 

He woke up from his faint sleep when he heard George’s voice somewhere close. His boyfriend wasn’t talking to him however but in the next door office talking with the nurse. He could hear the worry over in his boyfriend’s voice even though his head was foggy. At least I have George, he thought and closed his eyes again. 

“Hey babe”, George’s whisper brought him back to the world again. George was kneeling next to the bed just stroking Alex’s hair. His boyfriend hummed a bit. “You think you can get up? I think my bed will be more comfortable to sleep in.”

George was absolutely furious but he fought with himself to keep him calm. He was furious with Alex for not asking for help and faking to be okay. He was furious with every teacher in the school for making Alex so stressed. Most importantly he was furious with himself that he hadn’t realised this all before and got Alex to the nurse.

But that anger didn’t help Alex, so George focused on everything that would actually help Alex. Getting rest for him was the first step.

“Yeah I can get up”, Alex said slowly pushing himself to sit. He took a moment before stepping off the table straight to George’s arms. He blushed embarrassed. “I’m so sorry George. I’m such a mess.”

“Let’s first go to my room then we talk”, George placed a kiss on Alex's hair as they started walking out of the office. 

George had arm wrapped around Alex’s waist as they walked through the hallways. Part of Alex was just so glad to have George there with him. Other was horrified that he was in this situation and bit scared of what his boyfriend now thought of him. He surely wouldn’t be proud of this he thought. 

“Not a-”, Nicholas started when they got to the bedroom but one glare from George got him to shut up. Alex just kept his gaze down to the floor not daring to look up while George gave Nicholas another look making his roommate get up. “I’ll get going.”

As soon as Nicholas was gone Alex sat down on George’s bed taking a deep breath. He avoided his boyfriend’s gaze not sure what would happen now. The scare was creeping up on him. He was sure George would be angry. Maybe he would even want to break up with him. He wasn’t sure what he would do without him. 

“Alex babe can you look at me?” George got down to his knees in front of Alex taking his hand to his. Alex took a deep breath before lifting his gaze to look at George who was just smiling softly to him. “We can forget all about what happened today. How you have been stupid and studying too much. How I’ve been stupid for not realising this all. How some-”

“You haven’t been stupid”, Alex said right away squeezing George’s hands tightly. “I… I was the stupid one who fucked up. I don’t even know what happened it just ha-”

“It just happened and we move on”, George interrupted Alex with a smile. He had decided that maybe soft approach would be best for both of them. “Now we just need to stop it from happening. You are overworking yourself and you will burn out Alex if you don’t stop. You are so smart you don’t need to study so much.”

“But I’m not smart”, Alex whined to George moving his gaze away again. “I’m not smart like you are. I’m not. And yeah I know lot of stuff I am reading but what about if they just fall out of my head before the exam and I fail and I have to leave this school and… I have to leave you.”

“Alex that is not going to happen! You deserve to be here more than anyone. You’re just too stressed and tired to see it now but trust me Alex… Do you trust me?”

“Of course I trust you George!”

“Good then all the studying you will be doing from now on happens with me and me only. You don’t study alone. You don’t study during the night. We make a study schedule together and stick to it and then that is enough for whatever comes out of the exams. You’re gonna do great in them anyway.”

Alex felt George’s hands on his cheeks lifting his head so their gazes could meet. When he saw the worry in his boyfriend’s eyes he couldn’t hold his tears away anymore just letting a tear run down his face. He wasn’t sure why he was crying. George moved his thumb wiping the tear away. 

“Alex please”, George whispered to his boyfriend with bleeding eyes. If Alex didn’t let him help, he didn’t know what to do. “Let me help you… We study together from now on. Please. Is it okay?”

Alex looked at George for a moment before nodding to his boyfriend. There was no way he could say no to him. Not when he looked so worried. Not when he loved him so much. 

“Is that a yes?” George asked voice full of hope. He felt a few tears come to his own eyes. 

“Yes”, Alex whispered softly and nodded again. George’s smile turned even bigger. “I need your help George.”

“And I’m here to help you!” George said before pulling Alex to his lap to kiss him softly. 

Alex melted in George’s arms right away just curling against his lap while kissing him softly. George felt himself relax a bit but he was still worried of what was happening. But if Alex let him help then he would do everything to try and help to make this better. And get some professional help for Alex too. 

“Okay now you are going to sleep”, George pulled away from the kiss with a smile. Alex pouted a little. “You’re exhausted. Now change of clothes and sleep.”

“You nap with me?” Alex asked making big puppy eyes at George. “Please Geoooorge.”

George rolled his eyes a little but smiled and nodded to Alex. Anything for his boyfriend. 

#

Pierre was sitting by his desk just looking out of the window. He had a candle burning on the window sill having light it up to calm himself. It was pretty but didn’t get his thoughts to slow down at all. 

After a talk with Max about Charles and Lando, he had filled his days with as much stuff as possible. He studied. He did extra training. He spent time in the common room playing on PS with anyone that agreed to. He did his everything to keep himself distracted but he couldn’t run away from his thoughts forever. 

It’s not like the thought that he maybe liked guys had never occured in his head. No Max was really right about him enjoying the attention from other guys. But he hadn’t actually ever had strong crush feelings for any guy. For anyone actually. He just didn’t have crushes… Until spending so much time with Charles. 

When it came to Charles he wanted his attention and touch. And that was very scary. It wasn’t the fact that it was a guy. Or the fact that it was Charles. It was the fact that there were any feelings at all that was scary. He had spent a lot of time pushing his feelings down and away but now there was no hiding anymore. 

“Am I interrupting something?” Pierre turned his head a bit when he heard Charles’ voice coming by the door. Charles took few steps closer with a soft smile. “You praying?”

“You aren’t”, Pierre gave him a quick smile but turned his gaze back to just focusing on the sky. “And not right now.”

Charles nodded a bit moving closer carefully sitting down to his desk chair. He gazed to Pierre a little unsure what to say or do. Pierre had been a bit different lately but this was something new. Maybe the jealousy plot had finally worked… Doubt that, Charles thought how it had actually just made Lando now miserable. Stupid plan. 

“I took Alex to the nurses office”, Charles broke the silence after a moment of silence. Pierre turned to look at him with a worried look. “He is fine… I think… He was almost falling asleep while we were studying.”

“He has looked kinda tired lately”, Pierre said humming a bit just pulling his legs to his chair hugging himself. “You talked to George about it?”

“Yeah I got George to the office and he is probably taking care of him”, Charles smiled a bit just looking at Pierre. They fell to another silence before speaking again. “Do you want to talk about something? Or me to get Max for you? Something is clearly bothering you.”

“Talking won’t help”, Pierre said simple because there was no way he could lie and say he was okay. But he also knew that talking really didn’t help. He just needed to get everything sorted in his head. “But there is something you could do.”

“What? I’ll do anything to help you. Ask me anything.”

“Will come you come church with me next Sunday? I feel like I need to go but I don’t want to go alone… Will you come with me?”

“Of course!”

Pierre turned to look at Charles with a soft smile offering his hand for him. Charles smiled to him right away taking his hands to his intivning their fingers together while Pierre just looked to the sky again. This time there was however a faint smile on his face and Charles took that as a good sign. 

I can help, Charles thought. 

I will be okay, Pierre thought. 

#

Can’t believe I’m here again, Lando thought as he tried to calm himself but only ended up sobbing harder against his hands. Everything had gone so wrong and he felt so alone. All he wanted was to be back home and he was thinking if he could just call his mom and get her get him home. There was so many other boarding schools he could just go to somewhere else and not have a crush on his roommate and make him hate him. 

He didn’t understand what had happened but he was sure Max hated him now. The plan he and Charles had had clearly just backfired and Max didn’t want to spend time with him. He didn’t even want to stay in the same room as him anymore. He couldn’t go for George or Alex to help, they needed their time especially now. He was all alone now. 

Fuck this, Lando thought grabbing his phone and calling his mother. He tried to calm his breathing and stop the tears but it was worthless. 

“Mom I want to come home please mo-”, Lando started as soon as his mother picked the phone but stopped as Max opened the door to the room. Lando froze before quickly just hanging up and dropping his phone. He just stared at Max tears streaming down his face not knowing what to do.

“Lando what is wrong?” Max asked right away voice full of worry. He hurried over to Lando wrapping his arms around him right away forgetting all about his plan of iceing Lando. “What happened? Who has done something? Lando what is happening?”

Lando leaned to Max’s touch for a second before realising what he was doing. He pushed Max away from him making distance between them. His roommate looked at him confused and hurt. Lando was crying because of Max and he didn’t want his comfort. 

“Who has done something?” Lando repeated the question. Max just kept staring at Lando. “It’s you! You suddenly hate me and I don’t know what I have done wrong… Why do you hate me? I like you so much and… You hate me.”

“What?” Max was taken back just staring at Lando eyes wide. What was happening, he thought. “I don’t hate you! I could never hate you what the hell I like you Lando! Why do you think I hate you?”

“You don’t want to spend time with me anymore and you are avoiding me and”, Lando started explaining, still crying before he stopped suddenly. Wait what had Max said? “Wait you like me?”

Fuck the plan, Max thought at that point. He had just wanted Lando to choose hanging with him rather than Charles. He hadn’t actually wanted to hurt him. I’m so stupid, he thought. 

“I… I’m so sorry”, Max started trying to find the right words while Lando just waited heart beating like crazy. “I was stupid and got jealous of you hanging with Charles and I thought if I was colder to you… I don’t know what I tried but it was wrong… I just got jealous because I like you so much and have a crush on you and… I’m so sorry Lando.”

Lando swallowed hard just looking at Max. Max liked him. Max had a crush on him. The tears finally stopped streaming down his face but his head wasn’t any clearer from anything. He felt his phone keep vibrating next to him as his mom kept calling him. He just looked at Max, his heart beating faster. 

“I screwed up I… I’m not good at things like this and...”, Max tried to explain but gave up quickly. There was now way off saving this, he thought. “I’m sorry Lando. This is all my fault.”

“You… You have a crush on me?” Lando asked, carefully lowering his gaze a little. That was the only thing that was important from Max’s speech. 

“I…”, Max took a deep breath. I can do it, he told forcing himself to look at Lando. “Yeah I have a crush on you… I really like you because you are so funny and carefree and adorable and cute and… Yeah I have a crush on you and now this is probably really awkward and you don’t have to room with me an-”

Lando launched himself on Max wrapping his arms around his neck tightly while pressing his face against his chest. He liked him! Max was bit taken back before just wrapping his arms around Lando pulling him till Lando was sitting on his lap. Lando wrapped his legs around Max’s waist never wanting to let go. They sat on the bed just holding each other close. 

The moment was broken by George barging to the room in a hurry phone in his hand. The look of worry turned to confusion quickly as he walked to the room. Lando and Max pulled away from each other quickly. 

“Lando your mom is calling me”, George said pushing the phone to Lando. “She is freaking out telling me that you aren’t answering your phone. She is on the line.”

Lando grabbed the phone quickly. He gazed to Max quickly before hurrying to the bathroom to talk to his mother. Max meanwhile just sat on the bed trying to make it look like everything was casual as he felt George’s eyes on him. He gazed to him quickly just hoping George wouldn’t notice the blush on his face. 

“What?” Max asked simple before looking away. 

“What did I just walk into?” George asked leaning against the wall. He had almost had a heart attack when he saw Lando’s mom calling him. “What was that cuddling?”

“Umm it was a hug”, Max shrugged looking away. Just play it cool, he told himself. “Lando was upset and needed a hug.”

“Why was he upset then?” George asked and when Max looked even more away. Oh, George thought taking a step close to him right away. “What did you do Verstappen? I swear to god if yo-”

“Sorry about this George!” Max thanked the god that Lando came back to the room at that point. Lando pushed George’s phone back to the boy nudging the boy towards the door at the same time. “It’s all good now. You can go thanks.”

Lando tried pushing George toward the door but his friend was annoyingly strong, not even moving one bit just looking between the other boy. Lando just wanted to get things right with Max and for that he needed George out. He gave him the biggest puppy eyes he could before the other boy sighed. 

“Fine but this isn’t over okay”, George told Lando right away taking a step toward the door before giving Max one more look. “And this definitely isn’t over between us!”

Max just gave George a nod and took a deep breath when the boy was finally out of their room. Lando turned to look at Max both just looking at each other. He had explained to his mom that there had been a misunderstanding and that he had been overdramatic. He was sure his mother would be questioning it all later but right now she had let the topic go. 

“So… Umm…”, Max tried to find the right words to continue talking before just sighing a bit and deciding to go for it. “Do you have a crush on me?”

“A really bad one”, Lando answered right away with a small smile coming to his face. Max started smiling right away too. “Been since start of the school… But now my head is bit messy.”

“Again fully my fault and I’m sorry”, Max told Lando but reached his hand to him wanting him close again. Lando liked him! That had to be the best news ever. “What… What do you want to do now?”

“Can we just be close to each other and cuddle?” Lando asked, cheeks little blushed as he took Max’s hand. “It’s been awhile.”

Max pulled him back to his lap right away wrapping his arms around Lando tightly as an answer. Lando wrapped himself around Max as the other leaned to lay on the bed just holding him. Max stroked Lando’s hair softly while Lando pressed his face to his chest. 

“I’ve missed this”, Max whispered after a moment. “I’ve missed you.”

“Same”, Lando hummed just pushing himself more to Max. 

They slept the night in Lando’s bed cuddled against each other. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Next chapter up on Thursday :3
> 
> My tumblr if you wanna come say hey : [maxynorris](https://maxynorris.tumblr.com/)


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More of protective George. Lando and Max are still a mess. Pierre makes progress.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (if you are confused and have not seen this chapter. I had to lock my fics for few days thanks to reddit but all is open now again)
> 
> I hope you enjoy this chapter :3

Lando was bad at this whole having feelings for someone who also has feelings for you- thing. Max was equally bad at actually having real feelings and not just wanting a screw around. They were both bad at communicating their feelings to each other which was the whole reason they were in this mess. And a mess it was. 

It had been a few weeks since Lando and Max had woken up together in Lando’s bed. From that moment on they were basically not able to let go off each other, almost scared that if they let go off each other again they wouldn’t get each other back. They sat always next to each other. Slept the nights in the same bed. Lando sat on Max’s lap whenever possible. And there were kisses whenever they were alone. A lot of kisses. 

It started with small pecks to Max’s cheek or soft kisses to Lando’s hair. Soon there started being more kisses around each other’s face, always missing the lips carefully. That was until Lando had had enough. 

“When are you gonna kiss me?” Lando asked suddenly while he and Max were sitting on bed playing mario kart together. Lando was sitting between Max’s legs leaning his back against his chest. “Like actually kiss me.”

“Oh it’s my job?” Max chuckled a little as he once again won the race. They had been playing for awhile already with him winning every round, Lando was clearly getting frustrated and turning very pouty. Max thought it was adorable. “If you win the next race, then I’ll kiss you.”

“Game on”, Lando said right away picking his favorite track to race on. Max smiled softly and placed a soft kiss to Lando’s head but the other boy just pushed him away. “No no distraction!”

“Oh you really want me to kiss you”, Max smirked a little. Lando answered that with a soft nudge to Max’s ribs only making him laugh. 

Lando ignored Max’s laugh just fully focused on the race that started. He felt like he was on cloud nine the whole time after waking up with Max. The thing just was that he really wanted to kiss him but would never actually dare to be the one to do it. Just like he wouldn’t dare to be the one to actually have a conversation about what they were. 

Max was more focused on just watching Lando’s focused face just finding it adorable. He played only with one hand in no attempt to actually win Lando. Why would he? He would much rather kiss his… his friend. We maybe have to talk about that, he thought but before he could think more Lando cheered. 

“I won!” Lando cheered excited as he won the race. He turned right away with a smug smile to Max. He knew Max lost on purpose but that only made him feel more butterflies in his stomach. “Where’s my reward?” 

Max moved enough to put the console and the controllers to his desk before tackling Lando to the bed making the smaller boy giggle happily. Max moved on top of Lando softly leaning closer before their noses were almost touching. He felt Lando tense under him and Max stopped a bit unsure just looking to Lando’s eyes. Lando gave Max a tiny nod and soon Max’s lips were against his. 

Fireworks. Lots of fireworks. 

Now there were touches, cuddles and kisses and they were… There was no answer to that. 

#

The plan of going to visit the church next weekend had fallen through with a football game and studying. It had taken some convincing from the teachers to be able to get out of the school during a weekend so close to the exams but Charles hadn’t give up and bugged their grade teacher till she finally gave in. Charles and Pierre were allowed to go to the city for a few hours. 

Things were still a bit off between them. Or more like off with Pierre, Charles thought as they walked through the city. He and Lando had stopped their jealousy plan since… well it had in a weird twisted way work for Lando. Charles had started hanging with Pierre more right away trying to get his roommate to a better mood. At some parts he felt like he was doing a good job at that. 

“Have you ever been to this church?” Charles asked wanting to at least have some small talk between them while walking. “How often do you even go to church? I mean the past year and half you seemed to be hanging the weekends at school anyway.”

“You have been keeping an eye on me?” Pierre asked with a hint of smile on his face as he gazed to Charles. Charles felt his cheeks blush a bit. “And the answer to first question is no which also answers the second question. I really don’t go. I don’t feel the need to really… Well now I want but… anyway…”

Pierre shrugged when he wasn’t sure how to continue. Being in the dorm room had too many things messing with his thoughts and ideas. There wasn’t a peaceful enough place in the whole school so this felt like a good decision. Especially when he got Charles with him. Especially when it was Charles who made sure they got to go. 

“Okay wow”, Charles eyes widen when they reached the church. It was so big and beautiful. He had figured that even if he didn’t care for the faith part of the trip, he could enjoy just the beauty of what he would see. And Pierre’s company. That he could definitely do. “That’s so pretty.”

“Yeah”, Pierre smiled to Charles not wanting to mention that it was actually kinda lame. He took Charles’ hand starting to pull him with him inside. “Let’s go.”

Pierre pulled Charles with him to the chapel side. Charles kept looking around amazed all the paintings and decorations. Maybe I should come to church more often, he thought just curious about everything around them. He stopped his thoughts when Pierre pulled him to sit on one of the benches with him. He looked at Pierre cross his fingers together and close his eyes. Charles decided to follow his lead. 

Charles is not sure how long they sat there eyes closed but he opened them only when he felt Pierre move next to him. He had fallen to his thoughts in a calm way. He turned to look at his friend right away smiling when he saw the relief in Pierre’s face. He looked much calmer and happier than he had for the past few weeks. 

“Ready?” Charles whispered softly to Pierre when the other boy relaxed his hands and smiled. 

“Yeah”, Pierre nodded to Charles standing up carefully. He looked around the place before noticing a small candle altaire. He started pulling Charles with him towards it. “I just wanna lit a candle before we go.”

Charles let Pierre pull him to the candles. He looked at him getting one lit and put it to the mix with others. Charles looked at the candles for a moment before grabbing two for himself and lighting them next to Pierre’s one. He felt Pierre look at him so proudly he felt like his heart would burst out. 

They left the church together still holding each other’s hands tightly. Charles kept gazing to Pierre not saying anything just enjoying the happy look on Pierre’s face. Happy was maybe a strong word for what Pierre was feeling. He felt calm. His thoughts were finally in some kind of order and he was able to accept them. Accept that he really likes Charles. 

“Thanks for coming with me”, Pierre smiled at Charles breaking the silence. They were swinging their hands together as they walked. “You are amazing. I’m so glad you are in my life.”

“Of course”, Charles smiled. Pierre’s words made his heart beat a bit faster. “I will always come with you anywhere you want if you just ask.”

Yeah you would, Pierre thought. You would do absolutely anything for me. And I would do absolutely anything for you. If that wasn’t love, then Pierre didn’t know what was. He took a deep breath stopping Charles as they walked. 

“Charles I”, Pierre tried to get the words out as Charles turned to look at him confused. Just do it, he told himself. Tell him how much you like him. Do it now. “Wanna stop for a coffee before we go back? We still have time.”

You are pathetic, Pierre told himself just biting his lower lip holding back a groan. The confused look on Charles’ face changed to a soft smile and nod. 

“Of course!” Charles smiled squeezing Pierre’s hand tightly. He nodded towards a corner cafe. “Wanna go there?” 

Pierre nodded to that with a smile. The time will come. At some point I’m brave enough, he told him. 

#

“Okay time!” George announced grabbing the book from Alex’s hands before his boyfriend even had a chance to protest. Alex turned to look at George right away with a pout. “Nope that won’t help. Studying time of today is over.”

“George it’s like two week till exams”, Alex tried to catch the book back but George stopped him quickly just giving him a look. Alex pouted crossing his arms over his chest. “Fine.”

They were in the library on Saturday evening studying in silence. George had been going through biology notes while Alex read history notes. This was what they did now. Two of them in the library studying for a few hours a day. And only a few hours. George was really strict about that. When the alarm went off from his phone, that was it. 

It made Alex frustrated and kind of wanted to kick him every time he did but at the same time he was sleeping a lot better and his anxiety feelings were finally leaving his body. George seemed to know what was best for him even if it annoyed Alex. 

“What we gonna do now?” Alex stood up grabbing his bag with him. He took George’s hand to his right away twisting their fingers together. “Since I’m not allowed to study.”

“It’s for your own good”, George smiled leaning to press a kiss to Alex’s lip before starting to pull him with him out of the library. Alex pulled George closer. “Maybe we could play something. Should we ask Lando to hang with us? Rather us than Max.”

“I think you need to get used to Lando and Max again”, Alex chuckled to George a little. This had became a usual topic. “They are clearly friends again… Probably more.”

“No Lando is still a baby”, George told Alex pouting to him while Alex just pulled him to a soft kiss to distract him. It worked when George melted against Alex right away. 

George wrapped his arms around Alex happily. Everything with Alex was so much better now and he was so proud of his boyfriend for accepting his help. He knew it was hard on Alex but that is why he tried to find everything fun to do when they weren’t studying so Alex didn’t think about studying. 

But while everything seemed to go well with Alex, Lando was causing trouble. He didn’t trust his and Max’s friendship again especially when it seemed to turn more touchy. He didn’t like this. He didn’t want his friend to get hurt but Lando refused to talk about it. 

When George pulled away from the kiss, he placed one more soft kiss to Alex’s cheek before heading to their hallway. He kept holding Alex’s hand pulling him towards the common room but when he saw what was happening there 

“No no no absolutely no!” George said as he saw the common room empty except for Max and Lando on the sofa kissing each other with small kisses. “Hands off each other right now!” 

Alex actually had to grab George by his arm so he didn’t physically get Lando and Max apart. Max moved a bit away from Lando right away while Lando just blushed deeply trying to hide behind a pillow. They had been alone in the common room for over an hour playing on PS and they had got bored and ended up kissing a bit. That felt like a mistake now. 

“What the hell is this?” George growled at the pair while Alex wrapped his arms tighter around him. “Are you guys together? Why have I not been informed?”

“Because I knew this would be your reaction”, Lando said quietly from behind a pillow. That was an easy question to answer. The other wasn’t but Lando tried. “And we are… We… Umm.”

Lando turned to look at Max for help. They had been so good at avoiding this topic even if Lando had really figured the answer out. He didn’t know why they wouldn’t be together. They sure did lot of things that boyfriends would be… but he had no idea about Max’s true feelings. 

“We…”, Max tried helping just looking at Lando. He really liked him. Really really liked him but at the same time he had never been in a relationship and this was scary. But George was even scaries. He turned to look at him. “We are together.”

“Well then Verstappen out with me now!” George told Max right away moving out of Alex’s grip to the balcony. He didn’t hear Max following him right away he turned around to glare at him. “Right now!” 

Max had seen George annoyed and frustrated but now he was angry. Angry George was scary. Max stood up nodding to George. He leaned to press a kiss to Lando’s hair trying to give him reassurance of everything going to be okay before walking to the balcony. He was nervous. He had been avoiding George after he had walked in on them hugging. 

“I swear to god if you hurt Lando in any way I’m going to kill you Verstappen!” George started as soon as Max closed the door after him. “Actually I would like to kill you right now but I know how much Lando likes you and how important you are to him but I swear if you even take a small side step from being a good boyfriend to sweet sweet Lando I’ll be after you.”

Ah this talk, Max thought, taking a relieved breath. That he really wanted to promise to George. The thought of hurting Lando, actually he has done that already, was killing him. He might be a mess with his feelings but he would never hurt Lando. At least he would try not to hurt him.

“George I promise you that my intention is not to hurt Lando”, Max looked at George hand over his chest. “I like him with all my heart and he is so important to me and I would never hurt him. Trust me.”

“No I do not trust you”, George said right away only half listening to what Max had said. “You have showed no reason to trust you or do I have to remind you playing with Lando on the side while messing with Mr Ricciardo. Lando deserves the best boyfriend in the whole world and you are not that.”

“George I understand your concerns but please give me a chance”, Max told George sighing a little. “I promise you that I will not hurt Lando and if I do please kill me I definitely deserve that.”

“So you are not messing with him?” George asked staring at Max trying to find any hint of the possibility that he would be lying. 

“I’m not messing with Lando”, Max told George again looking to his eyes. “I really like him. I don’t want to hurt him. If I do then you have all the permission to beat me up for it. I won’t even fight because I deserve it.”

He isn’t lying, George thought looking at Max. He nodded to him a bit. Okay then. 

Lando still sat on the sofa but was turned to look at the balcony staring at George and Max just trying to figure out what they could be talking about. His heart was beating against his chest like crazy. At least there hadn’t been any punches. 

“He is just probably giving Max the brother talk of if you do something wrong I will kill you”, Alex tried to help Lando. He sat on the sofa next to Lando but was also looking to the balcony. “He just wants what is best for you.”

“I know”, Lando sighed a little and gazed at Alex. Alex better than a week ago. Much more rested and he and George were clearly happy again. That was important. “How are you feeling Alex?”

“Me?” Alex smiled at Lando a bit. He was used to the worry in people’s voices but he knew they meant the best. “I’m good. When they two figure out their talk, you think we could have like Fifa tournament or something? Get mind off studying.”

“Of course!” Lando smiled to Alex softly before looking to the balcony again. “If Max gets out of there alive.”

Few minutes later Max and George came back to the common room both alive and actually smiling. George moved to sit next to Alex right away taking his hand to his while Max pulled Lando back to his arms right away pressing a kiss to his cheek. 

“Everything okay?” Lando asked from Max snuggling closer to him. 

“Yeah everything good”, Max promised Lando smiling to him. I like this boy so much, he thought when Lando smiled brightly. “So… we boyfriends?”

“If you want yeah”, Lando smiled cheeks blushed a bit. 

Max nodded to that before pulling Lando to a soft kiss. Well that was easy, Lando thought smiling against Max’s lips. They couldn’t see George still glaring at them a bit. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Comments are appreciated! Next chapter up on already on Sunday because I have lot of stuff planned to be posted next week (like the last chapter of this fic) :3
> 
> My tumblr if you wanna come say hey : [maxynorris](https://maxynorris.tumblr.com/)


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Boys have a study session together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alert!! 
> 
> If you don't have an ao3 account I'm gonna stop you right here! It is possible that you have missed the chapter before this! I posted the chapter 14 on Thursday but had to lock my fics because of reddit bullshit. So incase you haven't read that check it first!
> 
> Anyway.... I hope you all enjoy!

Living at the boarding school was peaceful and calm. Everyone got along very well and even if there were some arguments they always passed by quickly. In the end everyone there was in the same boat with each other and therefore they supported each other. 

That was until it was exam time and that all of that fell down. 

The school was known for very good teaching but it also meant very hard exams. They were suppose to get you ready for the future in the best university. They didn’t only test your ability to learn and remember everything but also your ability to handle the pressure. Pressure of the teachers, pressure of your parents’ expectations and the pressure you made to yourself. 

It wasn’t rare that you would see at least one person a day sobbing over their books. The problem just was that everyone was a mess and tried to focus on their own work. There was no time to comfort everyone when just finding a peaceful place to study was hard enough. 

At least the boys had that on their side. 

Max, Lando, George, Alex, Pierre and Charles were all sitting around a big table in the library. It was in the furthest corner of the library which allowed them to talk to each other. Or well the place maybe allowed that but… 

“Oh my god I regret coming to this school so much”, Lando said staring at the math book in front of him. Max snorted at that from where he was sitting next to him with English book open. “Yeah yeah you are great is great that I came here but oh my god I hate this.”

“Aww”, Max chuckled a little while Lando gave him a smile. He was holding Lando’s hand under the table playing with this fingers. “You will do great. You’re lot smarter than you think you are.”

“Stoph”, Lando blushed a little but was smiling when Max pressed a soft kiss to cheek. He would never want Max to actually stop instead he giggled happily making Max’s heart flutter. 

“Alright Max and me change places”, George broke their moment clapping his hands. He stood up from his chair making everyone on the table look at him. “You are bothering everyone with your two cuteness it stops now.”

“Aww you think we are cute?” Max smirked to George pulling away from Lando but still holding his hand. George walked over to his place with his books showing Max to stand you. Max’s smirk fell. “Are you serious?”

“Yes I’m serious!” George said with a firm voice grabbing Max’s arm starting to pull him up. “Move!”

“Please Max just do it”, Alex told him, not even lifting his gaze from the book. He just wanted to focus on his book. “He won’t shut up about it before you do it.”

George nodded agreeing on what Alex said. Max looked at George for a moment before sighing and getting up from his seat. He gave Lando’s hand a soft squeeze before pushing George on his way to his now new seat. George smiled happily sitting down next to Lando. Max just wasn’t done yet. 

“Charles and Pierre are also holding hands, why you not breaking them up?”, Max growled at George while he slumped down to the seat between Pierre and Alex. “Why only me and Lando?”

“Well they are quietly holding hands”, George noted giving Max a glare. Lando just bit his lower lip not to start laughing. “They aren’t distracting anyone but themselves.”

“Okay but I was only distracting Lando and he liked it!” 

“You were also distracting me!” 

“Well that’s your problem then!”

“Oh my god shut up both of you”, Pierre interrupted the two boys before they would raise their voice so much they would get kicked out. He let go off Charles’ hand showing his empty hands to Max. “See? Now no one is touching each other. Back to studying now!”

Max growled a bit but nodded. He looked at Lando seeing his boyfriend smile at him made him smile too. He sent him an air kiss but the glare that George gave him made him look back down to his book again. Fine, he thought. 

Max definitely didn’t care about the exams as much everyone else in the school did. He knew that he probably should but studying was his least favorite thing to do. He had trouble focusing and he knew Christian would pass him anyway. He definitely wasn’t daydreaming about amazing fancy universities. His father might be but he wasn’t. He would be eighteen when the school ended anyway. Fuck the old man, he thought. 

Though he had been studying more during the last two months than he did in his first year. Maybe he didn’t want to be a total failure and especially whenever Lando was studying, it was just easy to sit next to him and try and focus. Even if it meant that he sometimes got stuck to just admiring Lando. Just like now. 

Lando felt Max look at him while he was writing down notes. He felt his boyfriend look at him, he corrected himself right away with a small smile coming to his face. He gazed to Max only quickly not wanting George to start another fit. 

His boyfriend Max. That still felt really weird to Lando but damn it felt good. He felt like he was on cloud nine all the time and while exams were right now really stressful already a small hug from Max calmed him down. What made it even better was that he was always able to also feel his boyfriend relax against him in the hug. 

There were still few stressful things about Max though. Lando was able to admit that he had no experience on dating or even kissing and sometimes he was freaking out in his head that he wasn’t being good enough for Max. He didn’t know enough. Meanwhile he knew Max had experience. A lot of it apparently and Lando now knew all that thanks to George. 

George was so visibly worried about them Lando had exploded on him once making him spill what was it about Max that made him so unsure. During the first year there had been some party and Max had been very drunk - the last party he ever was drunk in - talking about his life before boarding school before Pierre had finally managed to drag him to bed. There had been lot of parties. Lot of guys. Lot of drinks. Lot of weed. Lot of fights. Lot of family drama. Just lots and too much of everything. 

George hadn’t told it all to Lando to scare him. No he just wanted to warn his friend and maybe get Lando to talk to Max about all of this. Lando understood that but he hadn’t been able to do it. He doubted Max would want to talk about all of that and Lando didn’t want to stress him. Stress himself. He promised George that he would and he will… Some day. 

“Time”, George said right away when his phone started vibrating on the table. He closed his book right away and turned to look at Alex who for his surprise also closed his books. “Wanna go grab dinner?”

“Desperately my head is about to explode”, Alex sighed rubbing his face a little. He felt George squeeze his shoulder a bit and he smiled. Always taking care of me, Alex thought turning to smile at George. “I’m fine.”

“You will be after food”, George promised, getting up gathering his books. He looked to rest around the table. “Anyone else coming to eat?”

Everyone else shook their heads just continuing with reading. Alex got his bag to his back before taking George’s hand tightly to his. Part of him wanted to stay since everyone else was also staying but he also knew it was stupid. He would only work himself over stressed if he kept studying. He went back to repeating his mantra to him in his head. 

I’ll do well in my test, he told himself. I’ll get good grades. I’ll make everyone proud. I won’t fail. 

“Okay see you guys later”, George’s voice brought him back as he started to pull him away. George shot a glare at Max before leaving. “You let Lando focus on studying.”

Max simply flipped George off as an answer. Alex pulled his boyfriend a bit faster away not wanting another Max and George word fight. There had been enough of those. 

“You gotta accept that Lando really likes Max”, Alex smiled to George softly leaning to press a quick kiss to his cheek. George grumpled but couldn’t hide his smile. “And Max promised that he wouldn’t hurt him.”

“I’ll accept all of this when they have talked about everything”, George said simply to Alex. He had told Lando that enough many times already. “But if he makes Lando fail his exams, then I’ll never accept them either.”

“None of us is going to fail the exams”, Alex told George with a smile. He really wanted to believe that on behalf of everyone. Mostly himself. “We have had so many study sessions in the library the past two weeks… There is no way all the questions in the test can be so hard. Our teacher’s aren’t that smart.”

“Wait you really believe that?”

“Well yeah our teachers like I get it they have qualifications and all but are they real-”

“Not our teachers you dumbie. I mean that you believe that we will all pass. That you will pass as well? I mean of course you will pass with great grades but you believe that?”

“Umm yeah… I mean I know I should be a mess right now because exams are so close… I’m fine with it… Maybe… Oh fuck I’m not I wil-”

George grabbed Alex close pushing him against the wall and kissing him deeply. He needed to stop Alex from saying and thinking those bad thoughts right away. He needed his Alex happy and confident and he couldn’t be the reason he wasn’t. Alex let out a small voice of surprise but melted against George’s lips. 

“Feeling better?” George asked slowly, pulling away from the kiss. He moved his hands to cup his cheeks. “No bad talk about ourselves okay?”

“Feeling great”, Alex chuckled a little, wrapping his arms around George’s waist. “Always great with you.”

“Get a room!” Nicholas smirked as he walked back the couple whistling with a smirk. “That was basically dry humping.”

“You really want us two in our room?” George shot back at Nicholas just smirking back. Nicholas did gagging noise at that. “See! Think before you speak!”

Alex chuckled just pulling George close again to a hug and a small kiss. He would never get tired of George in his arms. He just thought about how much he loved his boyfriend smiling at him. After all the exams were done he would tell George how much he loved him. He had decided that. 

“So food and then we can go annoy Nicky with making out?” Alex smirked to George a bit making his boyfriend laugh. 

“Yes please!” George pressed one more kiss to Alex’s lips before starting to pull him to the cafeteria. 

Meanwhile, in the library Max waited till he was sure George wouldn’t come back. He jumped up right away when he was sure hurrying to sit back to his old seat wrapping his arms around Lando right away pulling him to his lap and starting to kiss around his face. Lando laughed happily just wrapping his arms around Max’s neck. 

“I think George was onto something when he seperated you too”, Pierre hummed with a little smile looking at Max and Lando. He was just happy for his best friend. He hadn’t seen this carefree Max in a long time. “You guys are hopeless.”

“So are you two”, Max said, nodding towards Pierre and Charles’ hands together again. Pierre felt his cheeks blush but kept holding his roommate’s hand. Charles didn’t react to that in any way, just focusing on reading. 

They did that now. Hand holding. A lot of hand holding. Pierre was yet to find the right moment to tell Charles his feelings especially when they tried focusing on the coming exams. But that didn’t still mean that he hadn’t started craving Charles’ touch a lot more. Meanwhile Charles clearly didn’t mind or question the change. 

They didn’t show affection while there were other people around - the friend group didn’t really count. Pierre was much more reserved when they were in the common room or the hallways. He was still trying to figure himself out and he didn’t need any rumours or whispers to affect him right now. Not when there was stress already enough thanks to school. 

“Okay I can’t focus anymore”, Charles said after fifteen minutes. He pushed his book away while squeezing Pierre’s hand tighter. His head was hurting from reading for so long. Also Lando and Max whispering to each other and kissing each other wasn’t helping. “You ready?”

“Definitely ready”, Pierre nodded running his hands through his hair softly. He let go off Charles’ hand to get all of his books away. “I feel like I need a nap.”

“Uh nap sounds like so good”, Charles said right away starting to get his books away too. He was as fast as possible just to get Pierre’s hand to his again. “Let’s go!” 

“Aww cute!” Charles heard Max say but Charles didn’t even react to that just starting to pull Pierre with him out of the library. Meanwhile Pierre glared at Max on their way out. 

Charles let go off Pierre’s hand as soon as they were out of the library in the hallway. He really didn’t want to. Actually if we could decided what they did, he would have his arm around Pierre’s waist and he would kiss him in front of everyone. But Pierre wasn’t okay with that. He knew that. But somehow it also felt like they were somehow getting closer there. 

Charles had noticed a clear change in Pierre after their church visit. He had become so much calmer and relaxed. Pierre wanted to be around him and Charles would never complain about that. 

Pierre helped him when he was at his darkest time. Pierre understood his feelings and helped him. He knew Pierre was struggling with something at the moment and he would be there for him. Always. 

“You were serious about the nap?” Charles asked from Pierre trying to hide a yawn when they got to their room. The exams stress and christmas break coming closer were messing up with his sleep. “I could use one.”

“Honestly yeah”, Pierre smiled dropping his bag down to the floor. He turned to look at Charles lay on his bed. He was a bit worried over him. “You look bit tired… You okay?”

“Yeah yeah just I keep trashing in my sleep and just”, Charles sighed a little gazing at Pierre. He sighed a little. “I’m fine.”

Charles gave Pierre a smile before closing his eyes for a moment. Pierre looked at Charles part of him wanting to ask what was going on but he had a feeling it would just stress Charles more. Instead he sat down on Charle’s bed his heart beating fast as he laid next to Charles on the bed. 

“What you doing?” Charles asked but automatically moved so they would both fit the bed good. He tried not to smile too much. “I mean I’m not complaining.”

“Maybe this will help you stay still and sleep well”, Pierre shrugged like this wasn’t a big deal. His cheeks were red and got even redder when Charles turned on his side to snuggle Pierre. 

“You are perfect”, Charles whispered to Pierre’s ear just closing his eyes. 

Pierre tried to control his smile but couldn’t hide it fully. He moved bit better wrapping arm around Charles. He placed a small kiss to Charle’s hair very carefully. He noticed Charles smile a bit making the butterflies dance in his stomach. It didn’t take long till Charles was sleeping peacefully against him. Pierre stroke Charles hair for a moment before he drifted to sleep as well. 

“How are we two the last ones in the library?” Max asked from Lando after Pierre and Charles left the library. “We are friends with all the nerds in our grade but us two stay in the library longest?” 

“Maybe they have infected us with their nerdiness”, Lando told Max trying to stay serious before they both started laughing. Lando leaned to Max but grabbed his book back to his hands. “I finish with this history chapter and then we leave?”

“Okay”, Max smiled just pressing his chin on Lando’s shoulder looking at the book in Lando’s hand. He pressed a quick kiss to his neck before also focusing on reading the book. 

Yeah I will definitely get the best grades yet, Max thought smiling. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Feel free to leave a comment. Last chapter will be online on Thursday evening! :) 
> 
> My tumblr if you wanna come say hey : [maxynorris](https://maxynorris.tumblr.com/)


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A very mushy and happy last chapter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go for one last time!

It was the last full day in the school before the Christmas holiday which meant a lot of packing and a party in the evening. It also meant that the scores from the exams would be send to their emails but there was one room that really didn’t care about that right now. 

Lando had wrapped himself around Max refusing to let him move away from the bed and start to pack. Lando growled at his boyfriend every time he tried to move and in the end they were just laying on the bed Lando on top of his boyfriend, head on his chest. Max’s fingers were moving in Lando’s hair slowly. 

“The Christmas break is literally like three weeks Lando”, Max said softly after a moment of silence. “We will be back here so soon and we will snap all the time and facetime each other… It will fly past.”

“Stop making sense”, Lando pouted to Max lifting his head enough so they could look at each other. Max couldn’t help but smile at the pouting. “I’m just gonna miss you… Though going home is also kinda fun. Can’t wait for like the Christmas dinner!”

Max just hummed nodding to Lando focusing back on messing with Lando’s hair. Lando looked at his boyfriend, head a bit tilted just thinking. Literally everyone was excited about the break and going home. As soon as the last exam ended, people were babbling on and on about their families and Christamas traditions. Everyone but Max and Lando was a bit worried. 

“If you don’t want to go home for the break you could just come stay with my family”, Lando offered carefully to his boyfriend. Max turned to look at Lando with an amused look on his face. “What? My parents really liked you during the ball and mom literally always asks about you when I call her.”

“Lando you are sweet but I’m going home for the break”, Max told him softly, moving his hand to stroke Lando’s cheek. Lando pouted again. “We gonna travel to the Netherlands to visit family and stuff… Will be back for New Year’s Eve to London.”

“What you gonna do on New Year’s Eve then?” Lando asked carefully. Please don’t say a party, Lando thought. Please don’t. 

“I don’t know… depense if Pierre is is around or not. If he is then probably just spending time with him but if not… I don’t know. I don’t really plan my life for so far.”

“You should come celebrate it with me and George! I bet Alex is gonna be there too so please I don’t want to be the third wheel… again!”

“I mean… That doesn’t sound like a bad idea to be honest… You wanna be my New Year’s kiss so bad?”

“I need to be your New Year’s kiss!”

Both Max and Lando broke into laughing at that point just looking at each other. Max tightened the hold around his boyfriend a bit. He was going to miss Lando so much, he didn’t even want to think about the holiday. He knew there was no way he could get out of the family visits but it wouldn’t be so bad. It wouldn’t be bad because Lando would always be a phone call away. 

“It just…”, Lando said after a moment of silence looking away from Max. He was terrible at bringing up serious topics but if he didn’t do it now… He just had to do it now. “You never talk about your family and… I just don’t want you to have a shit holiday… Or you to go back to the partying and to some hot guys and… ”

“Lando I can see you are worried but there is no reason”, Max moved his hand to Lando’s cheeks lifting his chin to look at him. Lando sighed but met Max’s gaze. “Home really isn’t that bad… especially since I’m calmer now and what hot guys are you tal- Oh George told you about this didn’t he?”

“Yeah but just because he worries about us”, Lando admitted and Max sighed. He moved a bit upper on Max to face him closer. Just say it all, he told himself. “He told me about what you had said about your life before this place while you were drunk… He has insisted that I talk to you about it.”

“George really likes to be part of our relationship huh”, Max said making Lando’s stomach drop. That was until he gazed to Max and saw his boyfriend smiling. “Lando that person I was back then… I’m not that guy anymore. Far from it. This half a year has changed me. You have changed me and I really like this new version of me much better.”

Lando looked to Max’s eyes trying to find if there was any lie in Max’s saying. He couldn’t find anything but truth in his eyes. Lando smiled before pressing their lips together for a kiss. Everything would be okay. 

“Okay we are gonna back our stuff now”, Max pulled away from the kiss after a moment. Lando pouted right away. “No no we are gonna back and then we can make out. Deal?”

“Deal!”

#

“Alex please stop”, George said as he sat on his bed just looking at his boyfriend walk around the room nervously. It had been going on for the past fifteen minutes and he knew he really couldn’t stop his boyfriend. “The results will come in a few minutes please sit down.”

Alex just waved his hand at George to dismiss and just continue walking around the room. He was able to survive every exam without a bigger breakdown or stress taking over but now he couldn’t anymore. The closer it came to getting the results the more nervous he was starting to be.

“Babe please”, George managed to grab Alex’s hand as he once again passed him. He pulled him towards the bed making puppy eyes to him. “Please just sit with me and let’s talk about something else. Our phones will let us known when the results are in.”

Alex wanted to whine and pout to George but instead gave up sitting next on the bed next to him. Now instead of pacing he started bouncing his leg but George could deal with that. He just took Alex’s hands to his squeezing them. 

“Lewis called me yesterday”, George started. Maybe he could just distract Alex this way talking about everything but exams. Alex did turn to look at him. “He was asking about us and you. That if you are coming over during the break.”

Lewis’ phone calls had become a tradition already. Lewis called a few times a week mostly just babbling about what was going on in school or what cute thing Nico had done etc. George didn’t mind that. He had a feeling they helped Lewis to blow off some of stress of university and well George actually liked to listen to it all. He liked to have a brother for what felt like the first time in his life. 

“Why is he interested in me?” Alex asked, a bit confused focusing fully on George. 

“Well because apparently Nico is coming to stay at our place before New Years for a few days”, George smiled to Alex softly. He was very excited to meet Nico and tease Lewis all day about his crush. He also knew Lewis would try to do the same about Alex to him. “And he would want you there to distract our parents from being too weird to Nico.”

“So that they could be weird at me?” Alex smiled at George. He wouldn’t mind it since he was pretty sure he wouldn’t be able to be without George the whole break anyway. 

“Yeah but well they already know about you so they won’t be too weird at you”, George shrugged a little but was smiling. “Nico is the foreigner and Lewis just wants some of the head off him.”

“I mean I wouldn’t mind coming over. I’m gonna miss you during the break and actually meeting Nico could be fun from what you have told. Does Lewis still sound like he is on cloud nine?”

“Hmm I think he is a permanent resident on cloud nine now. So in love though Nico beat him in one of their finals and he is lowkey pissed about that… I don’t know is weird.”

Alex was about to start a joke when he heard both his and George’s phones go off. Alex tensed right away gazing at the phones on George’s table. George took both of the phone offering Alex’s phone to him but held it still when Alex took it. 

“Whatever the results are those grades don’t define you”, George told Alex softly. “You are so smart and you worked so hard. I’m so proud of you.”

Alex smiled a little and leaned to place a soft kiss on George’s lips whispering thank you for him before taking the phone fully. He took a deep breath. He opened the phone and the email that had just arrived. 

George didn’t even open his email. He was just staring at Alex waiting for a reaction. His boyfriend stared at the phone for a moment before bursting to sobs. George dropped his own phone right away wrapping his arms around him tightly fearing for the worst. It ended up being the full opposite. 

“George I got A on every exam!” Alex managed to sob out showing his phone to George while just curled against his boyfriend crying against his chest. George took the phone to his hand while stroking his back confused. “Every exam George!”

“I’m so proud of you but why are you crying babe?” George asked while holding Alex close against him placing a kiss to his hair. “This is amazing.”

Alex wasn’t able to answer because 1) he couldn’t talk through the sobs and 2) he really didn’t know why he was crying. All the stress of the last few months simply left his body and he was left just sobbing his heart out against George. For his luck George just pulled him closer snuggling him close. 

When Alex was finally able to calm down he pulled away slowly from George. George smiled at him right away cupping his cheeks and slowly wiping the tears off his face. Alex felt wave of warmth go through his body. 

“I love you George.”

George’s eyes widened a bit but his face softened quickly. He looked to Alex before pulling him quickly to a soft kiss. This had to be the best day of his whole life. 

“I love you too.”

#

“OH MY GOD!”

Pierre heard Charles’ scream to the hallway as he was on his way to their room. Pierre had never reacted to anything as fast as he reacted to that taking running steps and opening the door quickly.

“Charles what happened?!” Pierre hurried to the room closing the door after him walking towards his roommate. “Are you hurt?!”

“I have never got this good grades oh my god Pierre!” Charles jumped against his friend wrapping his arms around Pierre’s neck. Pierre was startled but wrapped his arms around him. “This is all thanks to you!” 

Charles hadn’t wanted to admit how nervous he had been about these grades with the added stress of Christmas holiday coming closer. But there was nothing under B in the raport, even few A here and there. Charles just hugged Pierre a bit tighter before slowly pulling away cheeks blushed. 

“Sorry… emotions just took over”, Charles run his hand through his hair looking away from Pierre. Okay we hug all the time but maybe that had been too much, he thought. “I… I just couldn’t have done any of this without. I came here so sad this fall and now I got the best grades ever! All thanks to you.”

“Oh”, Pierre swore he had to be bright red at that point, not daring to look at Charles. “I didn’t do anything… It was you who started fighting the sadness and you who did all that hard work reading for those exams.”

“Pierre stop it”, Charles grabbed Pierre’s hands giving them a soft squeeze. “I couldn’t have done it without you.”

Pierre dared to lift his gaze looking Charles’ to his eyes. Charles had a soft smile on his face making Pierre’s heart beat faster. The exams were over. The Christmas break was almost starting. I have to do this now, Pierre thought taking a deep breath. 

“I got you a Christmas present!” Pierre blurted out, still not daring to say what he really wanted. He let go off Charles’ hand quickly going to grab the small present from his desk. 

“What?” Charles looked at Pierre go to the desk. “I… I didn’t get you anything… I feel so stupid now please don’t give me anything!”

“No no just sit down!” Pierre ordered Charles grabbing the package pushing him to the bed. Pierre sat next to him handing the gift to him, cheeks blushed. “Just… I just saw this and I thought of you and well… I hope you like it.”

Pierre was looking away from Charles too nervous to see the reaction. What about if he hated it? Maybe he thought it was too much? How often did you buy your friend - supposedly platonic guy friend - a necklace? But it had reminded Pierre of Charles so much he simply had to get it for him. 

Charles opened the little box carefully gasping when he pulled out a beautiful silver necklace with a small medallion swinging from it. The medallion was a beautiful blue rock with hints of yellow in it. Exactly the same as Charles’ eyes. Charles felt his eyes starting to wet as he turned to look at Pierre. 

“It matches your eyes”, Pierre said daring to gaze at Charles. “I just… I saw it online and it reminded me so much of you that… that I had to get it for you… I hope is not too mu-”

Pierre’s talk was cut short by Charles’ lips on his. He let out a soft yelp, surprised his brain freezing for a moment. He only started realising what was happening when Charles started pulling away panicking. Their eyes met for a second before Pierre simply pulled Charles to real kiss. 

Charles felt relaxed against Pierre kissing him better. He had been wanting to do this for so long already and it had felt like the perfect moment. When Pierre hadn’t reacted he was sure his heart would stop beating but thank god. Charles moved closer to Pierre just to keep on kissing him. 

By the time Pierre pulled away from the kiss Charles was already sitting on his lap his arms around his waist. Pierre and Charles looked at each other before both letting out small laugh. 

“That was good”, Pierre managed to say just looking at Charles. He wasn’t fully sure if this was real life even. Felt too good to be true. “Really good.”

“It wasn’t too much?” Charles asked carefully from Pierre now just feeling a bit awkward. Maybe it was just a weak moment. “I don’t know what happened to me… I just really needed to kiss you.”

“No it was perfect”, Pierre swore right away to Charles smiling to him. “I’ve been trying to find courage to tell you how I feel about you for weeks now… Thankfully you did it for me.”

Charles chuckled at that leaning to kiss Pierre softly again. Pierre smiled against his lips just pulling Charles closer. Everything felt so new and good and there was magic in the air. When Pierre pulled away from the kiss he just hugged Charles tightly against him enjoying him close. Charles meanwhile moved his fingers to Pierre’s hair softly. 

“So… You wanna be my boyfriend?” Pierre mumbled against Charles’ shoulder not daring to look at Charles. He hated (loved) how shy Charles made him. 

“I would love to be your boyfriend Pierre”, Charles whispered softly to his ear before pulling enough away to cup Pierre’s face. Charles stroked his cheek softly. “More than anything in the world I want to be your boyfriend.”

Pierre tried not to smile too widely just pulling Charles to another kiss. 

#

“Fucking finally!” Charles pulled away kissing Pierre when he heard the door open and Max’s voice. “Took you guys long enough.”

It was the evening which meant time for a party. Charles and Pierre were pretty much glued to each other and when the party had gotten overwhelming they had gone to the balcony for simple fresh air. Charles was sitting on Pierre’s lap while his boyfriend sat on sunchair. It was cold but also worth it for a moment of silence. 

“Ugh leave us alone”, Pierre told his best friend just pulling Charles closer to him. Max just shook his head sat down to the chair next to the pair. “Don’t you have your puppy boyfriend to look after?”

“He is doing shots with George and Alex”, Max chuckled a little laying on the chair. It wouldn’t end well probably but it didn’t bother him. This bothered him more as he turned to glare at Charles. “You know the whole big brother “if you hurt him blaah blaah” talk right? Yeah all of that is on I will happily kill you.”

“You’re so dramatic”, Charles showed his tongue to Max but when Pierre kissed his neck he melted against his boyfriend right away smiling. 

Max rolled his eyes smiling a bit. Charles might be a dick but at least he made Pierre happy. He could live with that. As long as he was able to tease them. Max didn’t have a chance to start the teasing however when the door to the balcony opened again with all George, Alex and Lando coming to the balcony. Lando dropped himself to Max’s lap right away snuggling to him. 

“I drank too fast now I’m drunk”, Lando pouted dramatically to Max who just laughed. Lando deserved some partying after the good grades he got. “Sorry… I’m a mess.”

“Nah you are just learning to drink”, Max chuckled a little kissing the top of his head. “And I will always take care of you babe. I’ll go get you water.”

“No want cuddles now”, Lando said pressing himself against Max trapping his boyfriend under him. Max smiled just wrapping his arms around him tighter. 

“Hey Max”, Max turned when he heard George ask for him. George and Alex sat down to the sun chair to the other side of Max’s. “Lando said you will come celebrate New Year’s with us.”

“Yeah if you guys just take me”, Max smiled at George while just playing Lando’s hair, his boyfriend starting to drift to sleep almost immediately. “Or you hate me too much?”

“I am supportive of you two…” George smiled softly while Alex cuddled George close. “For now. That might change later so play your cards right!” 

Max chuckled and simply nodded to George. He wrapped his jacket around Lando a bit just holding him close. There was no threat of him fucking this up. Not when this boy was his whole world now. 

“This was an amazing fall”, Alex whispered to George’s ear while they were both just looking up to the star filled sky. “I’m the luckiest guy in the world when I have you in my arms.”

“Nope I am definitely the happiest guy!” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it! Thank you so so much for everyone who has been following this fic and reading this! I can't believe is done! I would love to hear your comments on the whole story and everything <3 I hope you all enjoyed this! 
> 
> Moodboard I made for this fic on my tumblr [here](https://maxynorris.tumblr.com/post/643481039795322880/fic-moodboard-gold-rush-boarding-schoolau)
> 
> ((If you enjoy my writing I have plenty of longer one-shot fics in the works atm. And if you want to check I posted one new work already [norstappen flowershop!au](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29469012/chapters/72387462) which is gonna start a whole new universe with very familiar ships))


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